BY SAM ALFAN.
High Court has allowed independent presidential candidate Solomon Gichira to challenge his disqualification by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Justice Odunga will hear the matter Monday after the aggrieved candidate said he was likely to be locked out of the race after IEBC cleared eight aspirants after the two-day exercise in Nairobi on Monday.
Gichira has cried foul that he had been turned away and his candidacy rejected on the basis that he had been time-barred in submitting a list of signatures of at least 48,000 supporters countrywide.
In an urgent application, the aggrieved candidate said he was likely to be excluded from participating in the August 8 General Election after IEBC deliberately disobeyed court orders allowing him to submit the contentious papers.
He wants the national elections agency blocked from making any further preparations for the presidential election, including printing of ballot papers, pending the outcome of his petition.
Last week, Justice George Odunga nullified restrictions imposed on independent presidential candidates to enlist supporters who have no political affiliation. Similarly, the court outlawed the requirement by IEBC that independent presidential aspirants submit signatures of their 2,000 nominees from 24 Counties through electronic format.
On Monday, Gichira was charged with attempted suicide, malicious damage to property and creating disturbance following his altercation with IEBC officials and police officers on Sunday at the Anniversary Towers offices in Nairobi. He was released on Sh200,000 cash bail after denying the charges.
Justice George Odunga ruled that Section 29 of the Elections Act-which imposed the sanctions exclusively on presidential candidates-contravened Article 27 of the Constitution that enshrines freedom from discrimination.
