BY SAM ALFAN.
West Mugirango MP Steve Mogaka can now rest easy after the High Court upheld his election victory.
Justice Kiarie Waweru dismissed the election petition filed by his opponent Charles Ongera Moturi of ODM, who came in second during the August 9 general election.
The judge dismissed the petition saying Ongera did not provide sufficient evidence to overturn Mogaka’s win.
The judge further said Ongera did not adduce any evidence to demonstrate that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission failed to conduct the election in an independent manner as required.
“I therefore find that none of the grounds raised in the petition have been proved to the required standards and the petition is, therefore, dismissed with costs to the respondents,” ruled the judge.
The judge added that if a party seeks to make an analysis as to why there were discrepancies between different elective positions, the same must be scientific and undertaken by an expert data analyst.
“In the instant case, if the petitioner wanted an explanation as to why it appeared that MP position had more valid votes than MCAs positions, then he ought to have had an analysis for all elective positions. It would be simplistic to assume that all elective positions must have the same number of valid votes, given the explanations proffered on the issue of differences,” observed the judge.
The court noted that from the analysis of the evidence in court, it was abundantly clear that the issues the petitioner raised were adequately explained.
He said the errors captured could did not affect the outcome.
“These were errors in transposing the results from Forms 35A to B, summation errors and in the case Rirumi SDA primary School 01 & 02 the exchange of results between the two stations. These errors could not affect the results of the election for the member of National Assembly; West Mugirango Constituency,” said the judge.
Three weeks ago the election had dismissed the petitioner’s application seeking an order for recount and scrutiny of the votes.
Mogaka was represented by team of lawyers led by lawyer Danstan Omari, Samson Nyaberi, Shadrack Wambui and Omaiyo Mogaka.
The court ordered the petitioner to pay cost of the suit.
