Nominated Nyeri ward rep Millicent Cherotich loses seat
Nyeri County Assembly during a past session. Nominated MCA Millicent Cherotich has lost her seat. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Justice Teresia Matheka ruled that the politician was not validly nominated to the county legislative house.
Ms Matheka declined to declare the petitioner in the case, Aisha Omari, as the properly nominated person to represent minority groups.
A Nyeri Member of County Assembly has lost her seat after High Court nullified her nomination following an election petition suit.
Ms Millicent Cherotich, who was nominated by Jubilee Party to represent marginalised groups in Nyeri, suffered the blow on Monday after Justice Teresia Matheka rejected her appeal.
The judge ruled that the politician was not validly nominated to the county legislative house.
“I concur with the magistrate’s finding that Ms Cherotich was not validly nominated,” said the judge while dismissing the appeal.
She observed that though county assemblies should have face of diversity, the Constitution does not have definition of minority and the nomination depends on circumstances of particular cases.
The judge also stated that Jubilee Party failed to comply with an order by Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) dated July 2017 which directed the party to reconstitute list of nominees to the Nyeri County Assembly.
Ms Matheka further declined to declare the petitioner in the case, Aisha Omari, as the properly nominated person to represent minority groups.
REPLACEMENT
She upheld Chief Magistrate Wendy Kangedo’s directive that Jubilee Party and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) should replace Ms Cherotich with another candidate.
Ms Kagendo said the nomination was illegal as Ms Cherotich had not applied for the position.
But the court stated that Jubilee Party was at liberty to retain her in the Assembly by gazetting her nomination in accordance with the law.
Ms Cherotich’s nomination denied the assembly representation of people with special needs, the court said.
The chief magistrate ruled that the marginalised group she was nominated to represent was non-existent in law.
“The Constitution does not provide for ethnic representation, but calls for community and cultural diversity in county representation,” said the court.
On her side, Ms Cherotich contended that, in the county assembly, she represented the Kalenjin community living in Nyeri. She told the court she was married to a Kikuyu man, a resident from Mukurwe-ini Constituency.
Her submission was however dismissed, with the court arguing that it was not possible for her to pursue the interest of her community while she was married to an individual from another community.
“It is absurd to argue that she was nominated to pursue the issues of Kalenjins. Can a person get married to another community and pursue interests of her community in her husband’s backyard?” posed Ms Kagendo
