Former Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma election petition against ODM’s Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o has been dismissed with costs, this is a big set back for the man who thought he was bigger than Raila Odinga.
In his ruling, presiding judge David Majanja said the former politician failed to prove his case against Nyong’o.
He noted Ranguma’s petition was not complex and that the issues were fairly straightforward as manifested by the pleadings and submissions tendered, the number of witnesses and the nature of their evidence on record.
Ranguma wanted his rival’s win nullified on grounds that the election were neither free nor fair, contrary to stipulations in article 81 of the constitution and section 39 of Elections Act, 2011.
But Majanja said: “The respondents could not be called upon to answer a case whose basis had not been pleaded or proven to the extent that it required them to answer.
|The totality of the findings I have made is that the petitioner has failed to prove his case against the respondents. The petition is therefore dismissed.”
Nyong’o got 227,127 votes against Ranguma’s 156,963.
Ranguma had also raised concerns about the transmission of results; lack of impartiality, neutrality, efficiency, accuracy and accountability on the IEBC’s part, lack of operational transparency and improper voting, counting and tabulation of results.
Majanja noted the electoral agency and his rival filed a joint response to his petition, dated September 18, 2017, in which they denied the allegations.
