Kirinyaga, Kenya: Martha Karua was put to task over claims that her agents were barred from accessing polling stations in the 2017 elections. During the cross-examination of her petition which she has filed against governor Anne Waiguru and the IEBC, she found herself in an uncomfortable situation when IEBC lawyers asked her to explain what IEBC records reveal that in most of the polling stations where she alleged that her agents were barred she had more votes than Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru.
This negated any assertion that her agents could have been barred to her disadvantage. She was further put to task as to why none of her agents had filed affidavits to confirm they were indeed barred from their stations.
Earlier, Martha Karua had accused a court officer of misplacing a flash disk she gave him containing evidence. She could not clearly explain the circumstances of that transaction while the court officer denied ever being given any such item by Karua. The court case has been one of the more protracted election cases of 2017 owing to appeals and counter-appeals by the plaintiff. Earlier in the year, Karua had made an unsuccessful application to have High Court Judge Justice Gitari recuse herself from the case, on unsubstantiated grounds. The High Court judge however responded by stating her judicial mandate mentioning that her duty was not to do the plaintiff’s wishes but to execute her judicial mandate to all and sundry. Governor Waiguru’s lawyers to respond on May 9.
