Wajir West MP Ahmed Kolosh loses seat

The High Court on Friday nullified the election of Wajir West MP Mohamed Ahmed Kolosh stating that there was a deliberate plan to suppress the will of the voters.

Justice Francis Tuiyot said that the petitioner had proved that there the results in two polling stations- Qara and Korich were manipulated in favour of Mr Kolosh. The Judge found that it the two polling stations, voters who cast their votes exceeded the number of registered voters.

He said in Qara polling station, the number of votes cast exceeded those of registered voters by 162 votes. The Judge said the import is that the outcome is soiled because it is difficult to distinguish the “good votes from the bad ones”. He added that it doesn’t matter how the votes were added- whether by ballot stuffing or multiple voting.

RESULTS

Justice Tuiyot noted that there were alterations of results at Korich polling station and the presiding officer failed to countersign Form 35A to authenticate the changes.

Mr Kolosh had beaten the petitioner Mr Abdirahman Ibrahim Mohamed (Kanu) by a margin of 477 votes and by removing the results from the two polling stations, the results would tilt the win in favour of Mr Ibrahim.

Through his lawyer Fred Ngatia argued that at Qara polling station, the votes of the Mr Kolosh were inflated. Witnesses who testified in court said that the final result announced at Qara showed that Mr Kolosh got was 319 votes while Mr Ibrahim got 2 votes. But when the returning officer announced the results at the constituency tallying centre at Griftu Pastoralist Training Centre, the MP’s votes had been inflated to 540 votes.

The Judge, however, rejected a bid by Mr Ibrahim to be declared the winner saying he would give the people of Wajir West another chance of electing their leader.

He absolved Mr Kolosh of any blame and directed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to pay instruction fees of Mr Ibrahim of Sh1.5 million.

He said the taxing master will determine the final pay.