Martha Karua Makes Major Breakthrough in Petition Against Anne Waiguru

Former Kirinyaga leader Martha Karua has made a major breakthrough after the court allowed her to use the audit report by the court’s deputy registrar on poll materials used in Kirinyaga governor poll as evidence.

The ruling was made by Justice Lucy Gitari during the hearing of the ongoing case challenging the election of Governor Anne Waiguru during the 2017 poll.

The Narc Kenya leader had been fighting for the use of the report which will now be part of her evidence in the case.

However, Justice Gitari declined to allow Ms Karua’s version of the scrutiny report, arguing it would amount to filing new evidence in the petition.

"The dispute is that the petitioner’s report is not what was emailed by the registrar to the parties. The respondents said they would agree to the registrar’s report only," stated Ms Gitari.

[caption caption="Martha Karua"][/caption]

The Narc Kenya Party leader appealed a previous ruling in the case challenging Governor Waiguru's victory that was thrown out due to lack of enough evidence.

"The former Gichugu MP's case is 'hopeless, defective and incurable'," Justice Gitari had ruled in the initial ruling.

The court had determined that Ms Karua failed to comply with election petition rules by omitting the election results and dates declared a decision that Karua appealed.

In the previous hearings, Karua had been allowed access to KIEMS kits in the presence of all the parties involved in the case and the High Court's registrar.

The Judge had also ordered the IEBC to present forms 37A and B used to tally votes to allow the petitioner scrutinize them.

Karua had petitioned to seek exclusion of Justice Gitari in her cased indicating that she had erred by 'not finding that the petition raised weighty issues of law.'

[caption caption="Governor Ann Waiguru"][/caption]

In the original petition challenging the Kirinyaga gubernatorial results, Karua had argued that 37,000 votes were irregularly added to the final tally in Waiguru's favour.

The Supreme Court in March ruled that it would be unprocedural for it to interfere with the case after Waiguru appealed seeking to stop Karua's petition challenging her win.

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