By ROBERT WANYONYI
Bungoma, Kenya: Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula has termed media reports that the Court of Appeal ruling in Kisumu on Friday declared him unfit to hold public office as “a blatant misrepresentation of facts”.
Addressing a press conference in Bungoma town at the weekend in the company of former Kanduyi MP Alfred Khang’ati, Ford-Kenya Youth Leader Wanami Wamboka and several party officials, Mr Wetang’ula termed the reports as malicious, saying that they have unsettled his supporters unnecessarily.
The CORD co-principal clarified that contrary to the reports, the ruling did not in any way affect his position as the Senator of Bungoma County.
“We filed an appeal out of the judgment of Justice Gikonyo in Bungoma and it was heard when we were in the process of campaigning for the December 19 by-election. Early in December, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and promised to give reasons for dismissal later on. On Friday, the court gave the reasons for dismissing my appeal, which only hinged on the ruling of the lower court in Bungoma,” he explained.
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Wetang’ula added that he had filed the appeal to expunge sections made in Justice Gikonyo’s ruling in Bungoma that insinuated that he bribed bishops and other religious leaders prior to the March 4 elections.
He said this argument formed the main basis of an election petition filed by his rival Musikari Kombo that eventually saw his win nullified and a subsequent by-election ordered on December 19, last year in which he won.
“I had filed the appeal in Kisumu not to stop the by-election but to put prayers before the court on grounds that no voter bribery took place as indicated in the Bungoma High Court ruling. So, by dismissing the appeal that I had filed in the Court of Appeal and giving the reasons for such a ruling means that the court has sustained the offensive sections that I sought clarified and removed to clear my name and for this reason, my lawyers will be moving to the Supreme Court over the matter,” said Wetang’ula.
