Court nullifies Kidero’s election

Written by PHILIP MUYANGA, posted on May 13, 2014

City residents will have to do without a Governor for the time being after the Court of Appeal overturned Dr Evans Kidero’s election.
Appellate judges GBM Kariuki and Patrick Kiage ruled that Dr Kidero’s challenger during the 2013 gubernatorial election, Ferdinand Waititu had raised sufficient grounds to have the results nullified.
Justice Mohammed Warsame however gave a dissenting verdict saying Waititu’s appeal was incompetent.
“We have declared that Evans Kidero and Jonathan Mueke were not validly elected as the Governor and Deputy Governor respectively. The judgment and the decree of the High Court have been set aside,” Justice Kiage ruled on behalf his two colleagues.
Waititu had moved to the Court of Appeal after the High Court dismissed his petition seeking to have Dr Kidero’s victory overturned.
High court judge Richard Mwongo had dismissed Waititu’s petition on grounds that he had failed to prove his case. The Judge also said he had found no evidence of vote manipulation as cited by the petitioner and dismissed it with costs.
Mr Waititu’s lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui outlined 39 grounds of appeal seeking to reverse Justice Mwongo’s judgment that upheld Dr Kidero victory.
“The learned judge rendered a final written judgment that differed from what he read in open court on September 10, 2013 in violation of article 48,159(1)(a) and (e) of the constitution of Kenya,” the lawyer argued.
He said the oral judgment made reference to a finding that he had found the impugned election unconstitutional and in violation of the electoral law “yet his final written version was worded the exact opposite.”
During the March 4, 2013 gubernatorial elections, Dr Kidero was declared the winner by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission having garnered 692,483 votes. Mr Waititu was second with 617,839.
Dr Kidero ran on an ODM party ticket while Waituitu was the TNA candidate.
Justice Mwongo however noted that the general conduct of the election was however not devoid of malpractices.
“The court has observed that in Mathare constituency and Embakasi Central constituency, the results in forms 36 cannot be verified because every entry in constituency form 36 differs from every entry in county form 36,” Judge Mwongo said before ordering a recount in selected polling centres.
CLICK