BY SAM ALFAN.
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has challenged electoral body’s move to rescind the decision clearing him to contest the Mombasa gubernatorial post.
Sonko wants the High Court to quash the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati’s move to lock him out of the race after the Supreme Court upheld his impeachment.
He wants the court to compel Mombasa County Returning officer Swalha Yusuf to gazette him as one of six contesters for Mombasa County governor’s seat.
The former city county boss says he should be included in the ballot for the August 9 general election because he hasn’t exhausted his appeal mechanism.
He has also sought to commit Chebukati and Yusuf to civil jail for a term not exceeding six months or for such period as the court shall deem fit for deliberate disobedience of the judgement and order of the court delivered on July 13, 2022.
He says a three-judge bench quashed the decision by IEBC to bar him from contesting the post and directed IEBC to gazette him as a contender.
Sonko has headed back to the Supreme Court seeking for a review of the decision and at the same time filed a petition before the East Africa Court of Justice.
He says the revocation was done despite the fact that Yusuf and IEBC were aware of the review to the Supreme Court and a reference to the regional court.
Sonko says he served the electoral body and it’s officer through email, WhatsApp message and served them with a letter.
“At the time the revocation was being done, the applicant had already filed his case at the Supreme Court and evidence of payment of court fees was processed and sent to him at 7.02 am on 18.7.2022 and the same was communicated to the 1st respondent (Yusuf) even before she made the impugned decision.
Sonko adds that Yusuf has neither withdrawn the unlawful move to revoke his nomination.
It is his argument that the electoral body is intent on sanitizing their contempt and circumventing the courts judgement and order by seeking refuge in the Supreme Court’s judgement which did not set aside the clear finding that in the event an impeached person is having a pending appeal or review before court, he or she should not be disqualified from contesting.
“The respondent deliberate inaction and failure to obey the judgement of this esteemed court is a calculated effort to visit pecuniary embarrassment upon the petitioner, along with exposing him to loss of rank and status contrary to the express and ambiguous pronouncement of this court on 13.07.2022,” Sonko states.
Chebukati and Yusuf’s actions are an affront to the rule of law and are likely to bring both the court and the petitioner into a disrepute. He adds that the respondents’ contemptuous actions have been perpetrated with intentional bad faith and are patently disrespectful to the court.
“The petitioner has no other means of enjoying his political right under the constitution by contesting for the position of governor Mombasa County as directed by this court if the order of this court remain ignored,” Sonko claimed.
