Senator Chris Obure takes to witness box in petition seeking to dislodge him from seat

By Robert Nyasato

Kisii-Kenya: Kisii Senator Chris Obure Wednesday took to the witness box in a petition challenging his win in the March 4 General Election.

Obure who is a respondent in the suit filed by then Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) chief tallying clerk Charles Mogere told the election court sitting in Kisii that the polls were fairly conducted and reflecting the will of the people of Kisii County.

The senator told trial judge, Justice Ruth Sitati that submission by the petitioner that his supporters were allowed to vote twice and also casted ballots for absentee voters as far fetched and unfounded.

“Double voting or impersonating a voter amounts to criminal act  that should have been reported to the police for prosecution but the petitioner never chose that path,” Obure told the court.

Obure who was being cross-examined by his lawyer Chache Odera said in his four decades in politics he had never committed any election offence nor has his win ever been challenged in court ever.

He asserted that the effect of repetition of votes cast was minimal as it equally affected all the seven candidates who competed for the senatorial seat.

The ODM lawmaker admitted agreed with the petitioners evidence that he benefited with 719 votes more but argued that his competitor in the race, PDP’s Omingo Magara also got 556 votes meaning he only erroneously gained by 163.

Although he contended that the polls were fairly conducted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC), Obure said given the magnitude of the exercise where several elections were carried out in one, errors were bound to occur.

“This particular election was enormous with human and machine errors being inevitable,” Obure offered.

He said he viewed former Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof Sam Ongeri as his strongest challenger to the seat since the contest was between Cord and Jubilee and supporters had identified with him in Cord given that Magara joined the coalition belatedly through PDP.

Mogere has sued Obure, Kisii County Returning Officer Shem Nyang’au and the IEBC intending to overturn the senator’s victory.

In cross examination by Ogutu Mboya for Mogere, Obure denied that he was part of a conspiracy or collusion between election officials to secure his victory.

“I was not privy to any deal among election officials to skew the polls,” he said.

When asked by Odera  how the entire exercise was conducted, Obure said that the exercise was a process which started from campaigns saying it was held in a peaceful environment  despite isolated incidences.

Obure denied that he received ghost votes as claimed by Mogere during his testimony saying that the claims were untrue.

Obure testified that Nyang’au was under pressure to announce results which he had received but declined to do so until he received all from the nine constituencies.

On Tuesday, Mogere closed his case with Caren claiming that she was harassed and thrown out of te tallying centre by police under the instructions of the Nyang’au.

 The hearing continues.