The petition was filed by Jeremiah Matoke on grounds that the election was not free, fair and transparent/CFM NEWS
KISII, Kenya, Feb 22 – The High Court in Kisii has upheld the election of Bomachoge Chache MP Alpha Miruka and slapped the petitioner with Sh5 million in costs.
The petition was filed by Jeremiah Matoke on grounds that the election was not free, fair and transparent.
The petitioner had wanted the court to nullify the election stating that seven polling stations had more votes than registered voters out of the 89 polling stations.
The petitioner claimed that some forms 35As did not bear the official IEBC rubber stamp.
He also claimed that he was served with two copies of results which had different serial numbers and also some forms 35As had no water marks for security purposes.
He also alleged incidents of voter manipulation and fraud during the exercise and lack of signatures by agents on forms 35As.
Earlier, Kisii High Court Judge Winfridah Okwanyi dismissed an application for recount and scrutiny of the votes since the petitioner didn’t specify which polling stations were to undergo the process.
Miruka’s lawyer Okongo Omogeni said that the margin of the victory was so wide that the allegations could not overturn the outcome.
IEBC defended itself in court that it was the duty of all agents to sign the statutory forms but some ODM agents did not sign them.
They further said that the election was conducted in compliance with electoral laws.
The court found that the petitioner the petitioner did not prove to the court how lack of stamps could affect the final result.
“The IEBC gave a satisfactory element to this court that serial numbers in forms 35As were original and had no duplicate and this would not affect the integrity of the final results,” said Okwanyi.
The court found that a few errors that occurred during the election process did not alter the outcome of the final result.
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