Wambui’s rival gives up Othaya TNA battle

Mary Wambui will now contest the Othaya parliamentary seat on a TNA ticket/FILE

Wambui had filed a complaint with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) tribunal looking into disputes arising from the political party nominations, fearing she had been locked out of the March 4 elections.

The business woman emerged top in The National Alliance nomination exercise carried out in Othaya but Mugambi filed a complaint with TNA that Wambui had bribed voters.

On the second day of hearings TNA insisted that a nomination certificate was erroneously awarded to Mugambi. “Mugambi’s certificate is not valid as it was issued erroneously,” the party’s legal counsel repeated several times.

The IEBC is yet to divulge what disciplinary action they will take against Wambui after she led a group of outgoing Members of Parliament to the IEBC offices on Tuesday night demanding to know if her name was included in the list of TNA nominees.

The Catholic Church on Thursday condemned Wambui’s siege of the IEBC offices terming the action ‘unbelievable’ and an affront to legally laid down means of redress.

The IEBC did not escape unscathed as the Kenya Episcopal Conference Chairman Cardinal John Njue faulted them for extending the deadline for submission of party nomination lists.

Outgoing Gem Member of Parliament Jakoyo Midiwo will know whether his nomination as the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Gem constituency candidate will stand on Saturday after Elisha Odhiambo filed a complaint that it was he that won in the nomination exercise.

The ODM National Election Board (NEB) Chairman, Franklin Bett, defended his decision to give Midiwo a direct nomination saying that the tallied results that put Odhiambo in the lead were incomplete.

“The tallied results were from 49 out of 73 polling stations. The returning officer was unable to incorporate the results from the remaining 24 polling stations as Odhiambo’s supporters barricaded the tallying centre,” Midiwo’s legal counsel argued.

Odhiambo was thought to be the winner having garnered 12,007 votes to Midiwo’s 7,000.

Friday’s proceedings sounded like something out of a movie with ODM complainants alleging abductions, ballot boxes being confiscated at gun point and stabbings.

About The Author

OLIVE BURROWS

With a decade of storytelling under her belt, Olive Burrows has been with Capital FM for the last four years and perhaps most notably interviewed US President Barack Obama. Committed to asking the hard questions and telling the story in the most engaging way possible, she has also interviewed Melinda Gates, a UK Minister and severally had the opportunity to sit across from President Uhuru Kenyatta and address the pressing issues of the day. Other notables she has had occasion to seek answers from are UN Secretary General António Guterres and John Kerry in his time as US Secretary of State.

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