High Court to decide if Jimi Wanjigi will be on the ballot

Safina Party presidential aspirant Jimi Wanjigi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] 

Safina Party presidential candidate Jimi Wanjigi and his running mate Willis Otieno will know their fate today.

After hearing arguments from the duo and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), High Court judge Jairus Ngaah said he would deliver his judgment on whether Wanjigi and Otieno will be on the ballot.

Wanjigi’s lawyer Omwanza Ombati argued that the Commission for University Education (CUE) had cleared him and therefore IEBC was bound to accept his university documents.

According to Omwanza, IEBC had acknowledged in other cases that it had no powers to decide on academic credentials of a candidate once CUE had authenticated their documents.

“It confirms that the commission can argue in two ways and causes confusion,” said Omwanza.

The commission’s lawyer Moses Kipkogei told the court that Wanjigi had no physical degree as required by the law.

According to him, Wanjigi’s transcripts were not a degree certificate and that is why IEBC locked him out of the August 9 contest.

“The key word we want to underline is if the person is a holder of a degree. It is our interpretation that a person must have a degree certificate. There must be in existence a physical degree certificate. The applicant is not in possession of a degree certificate and never presented it,” argued Kipkogei.

The court heard that the transcripts submitted by the businessman did not indicate whether they were final, and were not certified.