Court orders recount of Thegu River MCA votes in five polling stations in Kieni

An MCA ballot box filled with votes. [Silas Otieno, Standard]

A court has ordered a recount of votes in five polling stations in Kieni, Nyeri County following a petition challenging the outcome of Thegu-River Member of County Assembly election.

Nyeri Senior Principal Magistrate James Macharia ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to recount and tally the votes. He also ordered scrutiny of Forms 37A, 37B and 37C used in the MCA election.

"That the IEBC shall avail the original/certified copies of the said forms 36A, 36B and 36C. And the senior court administrator shall oversee the process and avail a report to the court," Macharia ruled.

United Democratic Alliance MCA candidate Simon Gitahi filed a petition challenging the election of independent candidate Patrick Wachira.

In his petition, Gitahi named the IEBC and Wachira as respondents in the case where he argued that his agents were denied adequate time to scrutinise the tallying in 18 polling stations within the ward.

GItahi also argued that in some cases such as Karundas Primary School, there was commotion resulting in the ejection of his agents.

The petitioner asked the court to allow an audit of the KIEMS kit used during the August election.

In their submissions to the court, IEBC stated that Gitahi had 3,126 votes while Wachira won with 3,282 votes.

The vote recount will take place on November 22, while the matter will be mentioned in court on Thursday, November 24, 2022.

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