Court upholds election of Mathare MP George Wanjohi

The High Court has upheld the election of George Wanjohi as Member of the National Assembly for Mathare constituency.

Justice George Kimondo ruled that Mr Wanjohi was validly issued with the winner’s certificate and dismissed a petition by Steven Kariuki claiming that the electoral commission had violated the rules by announcing two separate winners.

Justice Kimondo ruled that although IEBC violated the law by issuing Mr Kariuki with a certificate and later revoking it, the grounds raised were not sufficient to nullify Mr Wanjohi’s victory.

“There was irregularities in issuing a certificate to Mr Kariuki before all the votes were tallied but that was cured by issuing a new certificate to Mr Wanjohi after the returning officer re-tallied the votes and found Mr Wanjohi leading with a margin of 346 votes,” said Justice Kimondo.

The judge also ordered Mr Kariuki, the son of former Starehe MP Margaret Wanjiru, to pay Mr Wanjohi Sh2 million as costs of defending the petition.

REVOKE CERTIFICATE

Mr Kariuki sought to nullify the elections on claims that the IEBC illegally revoked his certificate after he was announced the winner.

According to Mr Kariuki, he was the validly declared winner and issued with a certificate but later learnt that the certificate had been revoked and the commission issued another one to Mr Wanjohi.

He argued that the electoral laws did not allow the commission to issue another certificate outside the constituency tallying centre and accused IEBC of colluding with his rival to deny him the victory.

The judge, however, ruled that the results announced at the constituency tallying centre were provisional and the commission were justified in revoking the certificate after retallying and realising they gave it to the wrong person.

“The fact that the certificate was issued to Mr Wanjohi at the commission’s headquarters does not invalidate it since there are no specific laws as to where it is supposed to be presented and although the process of issuing the new certificate was not ideal, it was legitimate,” ruled Justice Kimondo.

NO COLLUSION

In any event, the judge ruled that the IEBC made a mistake in announcing him the winner based on provisional results since only the results contained in the Kenya Gazette are official and final.

He dismissed arguments by Mr Kariuki that the period of retallying of votes had elapsed when Mr Wanjohi was declared the winner, saying that the window for declaring results only closes when the commission has gazetted the names.

“Mr Kariuki chose a narrow path to challenge the elections forgetting that a fire has to be fought from the base, not the flames. He would have questioned the credibility of the elections and not the issuance of the certificate,” said Justice Kimondo.

He concluded that there was no collusion between the IEBC and Mr Wanjohi to deny him victory and that although there was something wrong in announcing him the winner then nullifying the same; it was also wrong to deny Mr Wanjohi the victory after he fairly won.