Court yet to determine 1997 civic poll petition

By MURIMI MWANGI

As Kenyans laud the Judiciary for timely disposal of the 188 electoral petitions filed after the 2013 General Election, a suit emanating from a disputed 1997 civic election is still pending in court.

The suit, currently before the High Court in Nyeri, came from an appeal filed by the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) against a ruling delivered on the civic petition.

The appeal pits the ECK against a petitioner who successfully nullified a councilor’s election following a judgement delivered by the Murang’a Principal Magistrate’s Court in 2002.

ECK was burdened with the cost of the petition for failure to provide electoral documents demanded by the court during the petition, prompting the appeal, which is now in its eleventh year in court.

1997 ELECTION

Dedan Mugo Mwai, a Murang’a County contestant in the 1997 Kiarathe Ward councillors’ elections, moved to court on January 20, 1998, challenging the outcome of the elections.

Mr Mwai refuted the declared win of Edward Thuo in the elections held on December 29, 1997, citing massive irregularities.

He claimed that the counting of votes at Muguru Secondary School was marred by inconsistencies and that the counting table was chaotic, disorganised and over-crowded.

He further said votes were heaped in several piles on the table, and that he had the largest pile but it was never combined with the rest of his votes that had been counted earlier. He wanted the court to order a recount, citing his suspicion that the ECK officials may have concealed the process to give a false outcome.

The court granted his request for a recount, although the exercise was delayed for two years, over various technicalities including bureaucracy at the defunct electoral body.

On October 13, 2000, the recount was finally undertaken in the courtroom, but it did not unearth any anomalies.

The recount tally reflected the final results used to declare Mr Thuo the duly elected councillor, and indicated that the petitioner was behind the councillor-elect by a margin of 219 votes.

But conspicuously missing during the recount were the counterfoil books, prompting the petitioner to lodge a fresh complaint.

The case has been ongoing ever since, and it is now 15 years and three general elections since the disputed polls.

On Monday, the case came up for mention before Justice James Wakiaga of the High Court.

The lawyers were asked to set a hearing date at the court registry.