Court dismisses petition against Kisii Senator Chris Obure

Kisii Senator Chris Obure. He has proposed Bill to compel the government to scrap all tea levies is to be tabled in the House in two weeks. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

Court dismissed the petition filed by a voter Mr Charles Oigara for lack of sufficient evidence

Mr Obure won after he garnered 120,351 votes against Prof Sam Ongeri who got 106,325 and Mr Omingo Magara’s 100,754 votes

The High Court on Monday upheld the election of Chris Obure as Kisii County Senator.

Justice Ruth Sitati sitting in Kisii dismissed the petition filed by a voter, Mr Charles Oigara for lack of sufficient evidence.

Mr Oigara was a chief agent People’s democratic Movement party.

Mr Oigara, through his lawyer Oguttu Mboya, claimed that Mr Obure conspired with Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission officials to rig the elections in his favour.

He also claimed that IEBC officials contravened general regulations and failed to take measures to ensure that the poll was conducted in a free, fair and accurate manner.

Mr Oigara also alleged double and multiplication of figures which he said affected the final outcome of the senatorial race.

He also claimed that in Bobasi constituency, IEBC officials allowed ghost voters to vote.

In a two hour judgment, Sitati faulted the petitioner for failure to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.

She noted that claims by the petitioner that the county Returning Officer Mr Shem Nyangau announced unauthenticated and unverified results were mere allegations.

Ms Justice Sitati said the petitioner said in his testimony that he had agents spread all over the county however, he did not produce the agents to testify in court that elections were rigged and votes altered.

She ruled that Mr Obure garnered the highest number of votes and that the margin of errors during the transposition of figures from forms 35 to 36 were human that even if corrected cannot affect the final tally.

She said that Mr Obure won by a margin of 18,368 votes. “Isolated human errors should not be taken as a basis to invalidate an election conducted within the law,” she said.

Ms Justice Sitati also said that a demand by the petitioner to nullify Mr Obure’s election on grounds of non signing of statutory forms was baseless. “Failure to sign the statutory documents by agents cannot validate an election that was conducted in accordance to the constitution elections act and regulations 2013l,” she said.

During the election, Mr Nyangau declared Mr Obure the winner after he garnered 120,351 votes against prof Sam Ongeri who got 106,325 and Mr Omingo Magara’s 100,754 votes.

During the hearing, the petitioner said that Mr Magara lost 1,299 votes due to errors in transposition of figures.

The court ordered the petitioner to pay Sh3.8 million.

Addressing the press after the ruling, Mr Obure praised the courts for giving a fair verdict.

“I promised to embark on my duties as a senator and promise to serve the people of Kisii county effectively to ensure that their lives changes for the better,” he said.