Babu Owino Files Appeal Against Nullification of His Election

by Jael Keya on Tuesday, 21 August 2018 - 7:35 pm

Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino on Wednesday moved to Court of Appeal to appeal the nullification of his election by the High Court.

In an application filed through his lawyer, Jackson Awele, Babu seeks to have the decision to nullify his election reversed with an order dismissing the polls petition.

"We pray that the Court be pleased to declare that the Owino Paul Ongili Babu was duly elected as the Member of the National Assembly, Embakasi East Constituency in accordance with the Constitution and the Elections Act,” Awele stated in the court papers.

[caption caption="File image of Embakasi East Babu Owino together with his lawyer"][/caption]

The former SONU chairperson also requests the Appellate Court to set aside the ruling on scrutiny and recount of Embakasi East votes submitted on February 12 by Justice Joseph Sergon.

The outspoken leader had filed a notice of an appeal on March 7, claiming that he was dissatisfied with the decision by Justice Sergon.

According to him, the judge erred in law to nullify the election without sufficient evidence.

He noted: "The judge ignored the relevant and binding legal standards for the evaluation of evidence in election petitions and in so doing ascribed excessive weight to the irrelevant and weak evidence.

"The Learned Judge erred in law in his finding that the results of the election were not verifiable on the basis of a sample of administrative errors in only 2 out of 208 polling stations in Embakasi East Constituency,” he further exclaimed in the court documents.

The NASA lawmaker claims Justice Sergon wrongly ordered scrutiny and recount of votes in the entire constituency only to nullify the election on the basis of what he terms as "trivial arithmetic errors."

The petitioner, Francis Mureithi, Returning Officer Nicholas Buttuk and IEBC have been listed as first to third respondents in the appeal.