NAIROBI October 9 – Nyatike Member of Parliament Edick Anyanga Omondi was on Thursday afternoon charged with assault.
Mr Omondi appeared before Makadara Resident Magistrate Kimwere Muneeni accused of assaulting Daisy Chepkurui, an aviation security officer employed by Kenya Airports Authority. The incident allegedly occurred at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s domestic departure unit.
The MP denied the charge and was released on a cash bail of Sh100, 000 pending hearing of his case on December 5.
The MP was arrested at the JKIA shortly after the incident. He was taken to court a few hours later.
Court declines to halt Kamanda case
Elsewhere, the High Court in Milimani on Thursday declined to suspend a case in which former Starehe legislator Maina Kamanda is challenging the election of Housing Assistant Minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru pending the outcome of an appeal against an order directing vote scrutiny.
Justice Kihara Kariuki ruled that the election court could not be kept waiting for an appeal case at the expense of expediting election matters.
The court in September ruled in Mr Kamanda’s favour by ordering a scrutiny of votes in the constituency after the former Sports Minister alleged massive irregularities during election.
Bishop Wanjiru’s lawyer, Chacha Odera however sought the court’s permission to appeal against the ruling.
Mr Kamanda claims there were irregularities in tallying process which resulted into conflicting voter turnout figures beside there being a high voter turnout during the election.
During the election, Bishop Wanjiru of ODM won with 29,496 votes against Mr Kamanda’s 28,601 votes. The case would be mentioned on Wednesday next week to fix a hearing date.
Balala barred
Meanwhile at the Nairobi law courts, an interim order barring Tourism Minister Najib Balala from appointing a new Kenya Tourist Development Corporation (KTDC) Board, pending a case filed by a former official has been extended.
Justice Joseph Nyamu made the ruling after a lawyer representing a former vice chairman Dr Pius Odunga told the court that the Attorney General had not responded to the case.
Dr Odunga filed a case in court protesting against Balala’s decision to sack him, arguing that the minister acted in excess of his powers and in utter disregard to the Kenya Tourist Development Act.
He claims the minister appointed strangers to run the corporation thereby jeopardising affairs and assets of the corporation against public interest.
The former official was appointed in April 2007 and his name gazetted a month later to serve for a period of three years.
Saitoti appeals ruling in election petition case
The Court of Appeal on Thursday directed lawyers in a case in which Internal Security Minister Professor George Saitoti is challenging a ruling in an election petition case filed against him by politician Moses ole Sakuda to take the earliest hearing date from the court’s registry.
This followed an argument by Prof Saitoti’s lawyer Mr Fred Ngatia that trial judge Kihara Kariuki erred in the ruling in which he dismissed an application seeking to strike out the petition for lack of service.
Mr Ngatia argued that the judge levelled accusations against Prof Saitoti and the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), some of which had not been made by Mr Sakuda in his petition.
He insisted there was no collusion by the ECK to evade service saying the court process server only made a hurried, quick attempt once.
“The judge was convinced that ECK officials obstructed access to the returning officer,” said Mr Ngatia.
Justice Kihara Kariuki ruled on June 13 that Mr Sakuda tried his best in serving the returning officer, but the officer avoided service.
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