Court upholds election of Matungu MP David Were

By Alex Namuliro

Kakamega, Kenya: The Kakamega High court has upheld the election of Matungu MP David Were and dismissed a petition challenging his election.

Justice Erick Ogola validated election of Were (New Ford Kenya) after the petitioner Paul Obwora of ODM failed to discharge the burden of proof on all the allegations that he cited in his petition.

Obwora who was slapped with costs amounting to Sh2 million, had alleged that there was massive voter bribery and intimidation during the campaign period and also on the Election Day.

He also accused IEBC officials of carrying out a compromised exercise by committing several errors in the tallying process.

On the issue of violence and voter intimidation, Justice Ogola observed that indeed it occurred in the constituency but there was no proof that Were or his supporters were responsible.

He also noted that the issues of violence were so minor and isolated.

 

“Voter bribery and allegations of intimidation were not proved to the satisfactory of the court” Justice Ogola said.

He said Obwora failed to prove one single claim in his petition that was touching on bribery.

“There is no evidence that MP Were and his supporters were engaged in any act of bribery the testimonies by all the petitioner witnesses were baseless and can be defined as fairy tales. I hereby find the allegations as speculative because bribery must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, “Justice Ogola added.

On the issue of tallying, Justice Ogola annulled election results in two polling stations (Mirere and Namamba) after a scrutiny exercise done by the court revealed that the number of cast votes were more than the number of registered voters.

Justice Ogola, however, finished his ruling by certifying MP Were as the validly elected MP for Matungu terming the tallying anomalies as minor and did not affect the outcome of the election.