Vote scrutiny begins as Kidero challenges Wanga's election win

Evans Kidero (right) is challenging the victory of Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga. [James Omoro, Standard]

The High Court has began scrutiny and recount of votes in the Homa Bay governor election petition with a few issues noticed.

Homa Bay Deputy Registrar Joy Wesonga led the scrutiny exercise on Wednesday. The counting and scrutiny followed a directive that was given by Justice Roselyne Aburili in which former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero is challenging the victory of Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga's election on August 9 General election.

All counterfoils were available in the ballot box. Kidero got 97 votes, Wanga got 237 and UDA's Mark Rabudi got two votes at the polling station.

At Kamsama Primary School in Suba North Constituency, a copy of Form 37A was missing from the ballot box. However, the law requires that one copy should remain in a ballot box after counting.

Another discrepancy was noticed at Rinya polling station in which form 37A indicates that Wanga got 96 votes, Kidero got 133 votes and UDA's Mark Rabudi got zero votes. But when the ballot papers were counted from the ballot box, it emerged that Wanga got 97 votes, Kidero had 133 and Rabudi zero.

Justice Aburili ordered scrutiny be done for ballot boxes and papers at some 195 polling. This came after Kidero complained that voting at the stations was marred with irregularities. He appealed to the court to consider scrutinising the target polling stations to help realise if the election malpractices occurred.

The scrutiny entailed verifying the serial numbers of seals used for locking the ballot boxes on August 9. This was done to find out if they are the same seals or if there were alterations. The exercise involved counting ballot papers to find out if the number is tallying with what was recorded in Form 37A.

It also involved comparing results entered in forms 37A with those in the Kenya Integrated Electronic Management System kits.