John Njuguna Wanjiku and Kariri Njama. [File, Standard]
An aggrieved voter in Kiambaa Constituency has moved to court seeking to overturn the victory of United Democratic Alliance's John Njuguna Wanjiku.
George Thata Ndia is petitioning the results of the July 15 by-election in which the Jubilee party candidate Kariri Njama lost by a small margin.
Njama polled 21,263 against Wanjiku's 21,773 votes.
Ndia is claiming that the tallying exercise was marred by massive irregularities and malpractices.
He is also seeking orders to preserve the ballots cast in the by-election and other materials, including copies of voters registers, packets of counted ballot papers, counterfoils of used ballot papers, polling diaries and returning officers call records on two mobile numbers.
The application to preserve the materials could be an indication the petitioner will be asking for a recount at some point during the petition.
In the petition filed at the High Court in Kiambu, the petitioner, through Njoki Mboce and Company Advocates, claims that the votes counted at the polling stations differed substantially from the tallies at the constituency tallying centre.
He claims there were some polling stations that did not submit Form 35s to the constituency tallying centre while others forms had not been clearly marked.
Ndia has named the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Kiambaa constituency returning officer and UDA's John Wanjiku Njuguna as the respondents.
"The petitioner contends that the massive electoral malpractices and irregularities in specific polling stations substantially affected the outcome of the Kiambaa by-election in favour of the third Njuguna Wanjiku," Ndia says in the court papers.
