A High Court sitting in Nairobi threw out a case challenging the nomination of Members of Parliament (MPs) and Senators allied to Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party.
Journalist Tony Gachoka had moved to court to challenge the removal of his name from the nomination list of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party.
However, Justice Erick Ogolla in his ruling struck out the petition stating that Gachoka failed to convince the court that the list submitted by his party was irregular.
Gachoka had told the court how the submitted list failed to meet the set minimum requirements like the inclusion of people living with disability.
The journalist moved to court after the August 2022 polls after the Charity Ngilu-led party excluded him from those nominated to the National Assembly to represent people living with disability.
He argued that his name was missing from the list forwarded to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by the party despite meeting all the requirements set for consideration.
Court reports indicated that Gachoka had prayed for revocation of the nominations saying the move to leave him out in the cold was not only malicious but also breaching his expectations.
NARC is one of the affiliate parties under the Raila Odinga-led Azimio.
Through his lawyer Cecil Miller, Gachoka narrated to the court how the party officials made sure he is not on the final list “despite him having qualified to be in the list and despite him having no affiliation to any other political party in Kenya”.
“Azimio under the Act is a corporate of affiliate parties and, as such, the petitioner is still of Azimio irrespective of whether he is in ODM or not.
“He is therefore in this court seeking rectification of a violation of a right. The coalition should have taken him as he never left the coalition as in the case of Wamunyinyi,” Miller argued.
