Joho, Kiraitu victories challenged in court

Former Meru Governor Peter Munya has filed a petition to challenge the election of Mr Kiraitu Murungi.

In Mombasa, former Senator Hassan Omar has filed a case seeking nullification of Governor Hassan Joho win.

He is citing irregularities in counting and tallying of votes cast.

Mr Omar and his running mate Ms Linda Shuma want the court to declare that there were massive irregularities in the conduct of election of the Governor, Mombasa County.

ELECTIONS

The petitioners who have sued the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), County Returning officer Nancy Wanjiku and Mr Joho say the petition is grounded on violations of the provisions of the constitution, statutes and regulations relating to the conduct of elections.

Mr Omar and Ms Shuma are also seeking a declaration that IEBC and Ms Wanjiku’s return and declaration of Mr Joho as validly elected Governor as invalid, null and void.

Mr Munya, through lawyer Martin Gitonga said he has enough evidence to show that he was rigged out and that Mr Murungi did not win the August 8 Meru gubernatorial elections.

He has named electoral agency and Meru county Returning Officer as other respondents in the case.

FLAWS

The petitioner claims he will seek to prove that the nature and extent of the flaws, malpractices, offences, non-compliance with the law and irregularities witnessed during the disputed Meru gubernatorial elections.

He said the irregularities significantly affected the outcome to the extent that the IEBC cannot accurately and verifiably determine what the results any of the candidates got.

Mr Gitonga said their decision to go to court was backed by proceedings at the Supreme Court where the presidential election was annulled.

In the petition Mr Munya argues that out of the 1,473 polling stations in the county, 119 of them had no data entered for the gubernatorial position and this affected 53,350 votes.

He also argues that 14 polling stations had the voter turnout higher than the number of registered voters.

VOTERS

He said following the error it resulted in a total of 13,528 votes while the total number of the registered votes for the polling stations is 7,862.

He further reveals that of the of the 1,473 polling stations they was a mismatch of the total number of votes cast for each of the six elections in 1,358 polling stations, which affected 657,519 voters.

Governor Murungi beat Mr Munya after garnering 280,793 against 231,420 votes.

Addressing his supporters Friday outside Meru court Mr Munya said he was confident he will get justice from courts.

The former governor said he joined the National Super Alliance because he cannot support a party that “stole” his votes.

IEBC

Mr Munya said he they obtained interim orders from a Nairobi court on September 4, which ordered IEBC to issue them with all copies of 37As,37Bs,37Cs and 38As,38Bs,38Cs in respect of senatorial and gubernatorial but they were only given half.

But Mr Murungi has dismissed Mr Munya’s case as a political petition meant to advance the Nasa agenda in Meru.

“I am ready to face him in court and am confident Mr Munya’s case will be dismissed with costs. I am a lawyer and was keen to obey all regulations during the election,” Mr Murungi said.

Meanwhile, PNU senatorial aspirant Mugambi Imanyara has also moved to court to contest the win of Senator Mithika Linturi.

Mr Mugambi will also be represented by Mr Gitonga, has said there was a discrepancies in all the polling stations.

Mr Munya and Mr Mugambi vied on PNU party while Governor Murungi and Senator Linturi belong to Jubilee party.