By Lucianne Limo
NAIROBI; KENYA: Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero has filed a fresh application asking the court to dismiss a petition challenging his election.
His lawyer Tom Ojienda told the court the suit was done before the gazettement of the election results and therefore premature and a nullity in law.
Lacks merit
He said the election results of Dr Kidero were gazzetted on March 13 and the earliest date the petition should have been validly filed in court should have been on March 14. Justice Richard Mwongo asked the parties in the case to file response within seven days and appear before him on May 17.
High Court Judge Mumbi Ngugi had declined to dismiss the petition and sent the file to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to appoint a judge to hear the matter and issue further directions. Kidero had asked the court to dismiss the petition on grounds that it lacked merit. He said the suit filed by his key rival Ferdinand Waititu was premature.
In the petition, Waititu wants the court to order the cancellation of certificate of election issued to Kidero and his running mate Jonathan Mweke on grounds that votes from seven constituencies were illegally cast in their favour by non-existent voters.
Waititu, through his lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui, wants the court to order a scrutiny of votes from seven constituencies to establish their validity. The constituencies in contention are Westlands, Ruaraka, Langata, Kibra, Embakasi East and South, and Mathare.
No powers
But Kidero said the court had no powers to cancel a certificate of election issued to him by Nairobi county returning officer who is legitimately mandated by the Constitution.
Kidero also disputed figures cited by Waititu as irregular, saying the total votes cast including those rejected for Langata constituency, St Mary’s primary ward polling was 3,406 of the registered 4,059 voters.
Waititu had claimed the registered voters there were 4,059, yet the total votes cast for the Nairobi Governor from that ward was officially stated by IEBC as 4510.
