By Lucianne Limo
NAIROBI, KENYA: A witness in an election petition was arrested after admitting in court to voting twice for a Member of National Assembly in Makadara Constituency.
Justice Richard Mwongo ordered that Daniel Nyakundi be arrested forthwith on his own admission of guilt and investigation be carried out immediately.
The court also directed that officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) at Kaloleni polling station be investigated, with the view of establishing who presented Nyakundi with two ballot papers.
“An offence has been admitted and it would be improper for the court to ignore it, “ruled the judge.
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It was a case of the hunter being hunted when court orderlies pounced on Nyakundi while at the witness stand and handcuffed him.
He was led to the courts basement cell where he will cool his heels until he will be released on bond.
Section 58 of Elections Act provides that a person who votes twice can be fined Sh2 million or six months in jail.
Nyakundi who was called in as the witness for former Nairobi Mayor George Aladwa in an election petition challenging the election of Benson Kangara as Madaraka MP admitted to have voted twice in his affidavit and in court.
“I voted in Kaloleni primary school and IEBC officials gave me two ballot papers and they were the ones who deposited them into the ballot box after I voted, “he added.
The witness said he was paid two hundred shillings after casting his vote.
He added that he voted at stream five yet he was registered to vote at stream two at the polling center.
“I was given the two ballot papers for Member of National Assembly and I was merely following instructions of the IEBC official. It was not my fault, “he told the court.
Aladwa asked the court to direct IEBC to produce their officials who were based in Kaloleni to give an account of what happened.
The former Mayor wants the court to nullify the election of Kangara and instead declare him the winner.
He told the trial court that he believes he won elections by over 39,000 votes.
Kangara garnered 37,644 votes against Aladwa’s 36,079.
Aladwa, who was Kangara’s closest rival, filed an election petition on grounds that elections in Makadara constituency were marred with massive irregularities.
He said several polling station posted results that indicated that votes cast were more than registered voters.
“The total cast votes are indicated as 89,152 and the rejected votes were 786 therefore the total valid votes ought to be 88,366 and not 87,618 as indicated, “he said.
