‘Dead voters’ in Kasipul Constituency voted in March polls

By JAMES OMORO

Homa Bay, Kenya: ‘Dead voters’ in Kasipul Constituency cast their ballot in the March polls, the High Court in Homa Bay was told.

Lawyer Samwel Nyauke told the court he had two people whose names were found to have been cancelled in the register to show that they voted yet they had died a few days before the March 4 election was conducted.

Representing Mr Charles Ong’ondo Were who is challenging area MP Joseph Oyugi Magwanga’s victory, the lawyer said his client attended the funeral service of one of the deceased voters a few days before the General Election, but was later surprised to have found that she voted.

 “I wish to tell the court that in an affidavit, Were stated that he attended a woman’s funeral a few days before the election, but he later found her name crossed in the register that she had voted,” Mr Nyauke said.

The lawyer, who tabled in court death certificates for the ‘voters’ told the Election Court Judge Esther Maina that it was not known whom the ‘dead’ voters cast the ballot in favour of. The court was told that casting votes on behalf of dead voters was an indication of irregularity in the election.

Nyauke told the court that some Form 35 (containing election results from polling stations) were not signed from a number of polling stations by Were’s agents, hence it was difficult to authenticate what he got.

He complained that the Returning Officer was involved in electoral misconduct that led to his arrest on March 4. In the petition, Were is seeking a recount of votes to enable the truth of what transpired to be known.

Magwanga’s advocate, George Okoth, asked the court to dismiss the case because the evidence produced by the petitioner was scanty. Mr Okoth argued that the evidence given by the accused had some hitches that could not convince a right thinking person to believe there were anomalies.

“I wish to tell the court that the petitioner cannot convince somebody that some of the deceased persons voted because he has only produced a burial certificate but what can convince somebody of a person’s demise is a death certificate, which he has failed to produce,” Okoth said.