Muranga Woman Representative and President Uhuru Kenyatta's fierce defender, Sabina Chege, has moved to court over a decision by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to proceed to full hearing in a case involving electoral malpractices in the 2017 polls as alleged by her during a rally in Vihiga County less than a fortnight ago.
In a ruling made by the commission's Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee, it was determined that the matter will proceed to a full hearing after the Legislator and her lawyers made their submissions.
Consequently, Chege filed a petition before the High Court sitting in Nairobi asking the court to block the electoral body from proceeding with their hearing and further inquiry into the matter.
In court documents, Chege argues that IEBC does not have grounds to proceed with the hearings, explaining that she has not yet declared her interest to vie for any political position in the August 9 polls.
Additionally, the lawmaker claims that the proceedings by the committee was started in bad faith, alleging that there were plans to block her from contesting in the upcoming elections.
“The respondent has framed a complaint incapable of eliciting a response from the applicant, seeing as it does not mention any of the elements listed in clause 6(a) of the Electoral Code of Conduct, a violation of Article 50 of Constitution, which makes it mandatory that a charge contains sufficient particulars to enable an accused respond to the same,” read the court documents in part.
While appearing before the committee on February 15, Siaya Senator James Orengo, who was representing Chege, stated that IEBC had not clearly outlined the case it was pursuing against Chege.
At the time, Orengo asked the committee led by IEBC Chairperson Wanyonyi Wafula Chebukati to stop the hearing of the matter.
"We have a problem with this statement of the breach. From the charge, it is a redacted version of what Sabina Chege said. There is no clear assertion. You are not telling us clearly what she is accused of saying," argued Orengo at the time of appearance before the committee.
The move by Chege and her team also comes after Orengo stated that they will seek alternative means to deal with the matter after dissatisfaction with the ruling made by Chebukati and his team.
"We raised five grounds as to why this matter should not proceed before the committee but they focused on one ground to make the decision on a matter they have jurisdiction on. Utterances made by Sabina Chege don’t amount to the accusations made by the electoral commission," Orengo stated then.
However, Chebukati stated that the commission had determined that it had the jurisdiction to proceed with the hearing, stating that Chege was an elected Member of Parliament.
