Machakos Governor Dr. Alfred Mutua has done a lot for his home town but that doesn’t mean that he has job security does it? Mutua is now crossing his fingers as he awaits to know his fate come tomorrow when the court will make a ruling on the case challenging his victory in the 2017 General Election.
The Machakos MP will be joined by six other Members of Parliaments who are also awaiting the ruling that will determine whether they will keep their day jobs. The six include Embakasi South’s Julius Mwathe, Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills), Chris Karani (Ugenya), Gideon Konchellah (Kilgoris), Mr John Oyioka (Bonchari) and Marsabit Woman Representative Safia Adan.
The Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court in a notice earlier this week said that the Court will rule on the cases on Friday. In Dr. Mutua’s case, High Court Judge Aggrey Muchelule dismissed Ms Wavinya Ndeti’s petition but the appellate court overturned the decision, faulting the returning officer for using the wrong form.
Justices William Ouko, Mohamed Warsame and Gatembu Kairu said Dr Mutua’s election was invalid as the results were illegal and could not be verified.
On July 8, the Court of Appeal quashed Mr. Mwathe’s August 2017 election win following an appeal lodged by his rival Irshad Sumra of the ODM party.
In his petition, Mr. Sumra blamed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for his defeat, claiming that the returning officer “declared the loser as the winner and the winner the loser.
Mr. Mawathe was declared the winner of the poll after IEBC said he garnered 33,880 against Mr. Sumra’s 33,708 votes.
In his petition and appeal, Mr Sumra cited malpractices, irregularities, illegalities and or non-compliance of the law, which he argued had an effect on the results announced. The court agreed with Sumra saying that there was a serious mix-up of votes during counting at some tallying centers.
