A vote recount for the Embakasi East parliamentary election shows that incumbent Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino won the disputed contest.
According to a report filed on Monday by the deputy registrar, Babu attained 46,817 votes against the petitioner, Francis Mureithi, who got 42,501 votes.
The report, further revealed that both the incumbent and Mureithi had registered an increase in votes after the recount.
High Court Deputy Registrars Esther Mburu and Mbayaki Wafula, noted that the vote recount and scrutiny was a success, except for an incident where one of the deputy registrar’s phones was stolen.
[caption caption="Petitioner Francis Mureithi"]
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“The registrars are positive that the data collected and the report presented before the trial court will be helpful in the determination of the election petition," they affirmed.
The judge hearing the lawsuit, Justice Joseph Sergon, ordered the recount in the entire constituency following a petition filed by Mureithi challenging the election.
Mureithi, through lawyer Ham Lagat and Kiragu Kimani, filed an application for the scrutiny, a process that was concluded last week.
Justice Sergon, in his ruling for the application, maintained that he was satisfied Mureithi had given sufficient reasons to call for a recount.
The judge noted that the Embakasi East returning officer, Nicholas Butuk, had admitted in court that the results he announced did not tally with the ones in the Form 35A and there were errors in the forms.
The case will come up for judgement on March 2.
Here are the court documents:
[caption caption="Booklets with the results after the recount"]
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[caption caption="Booklets with the results after the recount"]
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