Ferdinand Waititu in fresh bid to remove Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero

BY WILFRED AYAGA

Nairobi, Kenya: Former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu has lodged a fresh appeal to remove Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero from office.

Waititu has filed a memorandum of appeal seeking a fresh hearing to the application he filed last year challenging the election of Kidero as Nairobi Governor.

Through lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui, Waititu has argued that there were serious constitutional anomalies in the court ruling made last year that sealed Kidero’s victory.

According to Waititu, these anomalies can only be addressed through a fresh hearing of the petition.

Among his contentions is that that there were glaring contradictions in the oral statements made by the judge during the judgment and those that were in the final written judgment.

Waititu states that although the judge had admitted in his oral statements that the elections were indeed polluted, he ended up reaching a different finding in his final ruling.

“What he rendered in his written judgment was different from what he read in open court on September 10 2013 in violation of article 48,159(1)(a) and (e) of the constitution of Kenya and which showed his hasty, undecided, unconsidered and wavering determination of the election petition,” the lawyer said.

He claims that the judge never considered his petition on its own merits, and instead wrongly placed the burden of proof on the petitioner.

“The appellant was treated with bias resulting in a biased judgment that lacked his material input and hence an unjust decision,” Mr Kinyanjui said.

The former Embakasi MP had in his petition last year argued that there were serious electoral malpractices that cost him the election. He wanted a declaration that Kidero was not validly elected as the Governor.

In his ruling of the petition, Justice Mwongo had said that although there were irregularities in various polling centres, these did not pollute the entire election.

In his current appeal, he claims that his lawyers were not allowed to cross examine witnesses and the court failed to objectively scrutinise Forms 35 and 36, which Waititu says contained serious irregularities.

“The appellant’s right to equal treatment before the law was violated in an unfair and illegal judgment,” he says.

Waititu now wants the court of appeal to reverse the decision of the court made in September last year.

In his petition, he has cited 39 grounds which he says demonstrate that the judgment entered against him was not fair.

The hearing of the petition was set for January 14.