Ruling on the petition against Wambui’s victory set for Thursday

The High Court will Thursday decide whether Ms Mary Wambui will continue being the MP for Othaya.

The court’s ruling will end months of accusations between lawyers representing the MP and those of petitioner Peter King’ara.

Mr King’ara testified that the MP did not meet the integrity and education qualification thresholds to contest in the elections.

He told Mr Justice Jarius Ngaa that the MP was mentioned in the Kenya Human Rights Commission report as having played a role in the 2007 and 2008 election violence.

“She was mentioned as one of the people who imported arms to be used during the post-election violence,” he told the court.

Mr King’ara contends that the allegations were too serious, adding that the KNHRC recommended that she be investigated. A parliamentary committee also recommended that she be investigated in connection with the Artur brothers saga, the petitioner added.

Through lawyer Cecil Miller, the MP submitted that she could not have been denied the right to contest unless she had been charged and convicted.

The petitioner also said Ms Wambui did not have O-level qualifications but the MP countered that saying she had the qualifications from an international school and a diploma in civic education.

Mr King’ara applied to the High Court to compel Ms Wambui to produce her certificates but the judge dismissed the prayers on August 6, saying the issue was in the main petition and ruling on it would pre-empt the ruling.

Justice Ngaa noted that the petitioner did not prove that it was mandatory for a parliamentary candidate to produce the certificate in order to contest.

Vote recount

The judge ruled that the court had to consider whether the documents had any relevance to the petition, adding that Mr King’ara bore the burden of proving his case.

The court also dismissed an application filed by Mr King’ara asking for scrutiny and recount of the constituency votes.