Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung'aro was on Friday, November 18, dealt a blow after the High Court declined a request to strike out a petition challenging his election.
Lady Justice Anne Adwera Onginjo ruled that the High Court had the jurisdiction to handle the case, shooting down an earlier submission that argued that the matter was beyond the court's reach.
The applicants in the case argued that the petition touched on the Presidential Election, whose determination is the preserve of the Supreme Court.
However, the judge ruled that the case had other concrete grounds upon which the petition was founded and as such the petitioners had a right to be heard.
“This Court is of the view that the mere mention of the presidential election in the negligible portion of the petition cannot be a ground for striking out the petition which has complied with the requirements provided for under rule 8 (1) of the elections, parliamentary and county election petition rules."
"For that consideration, I find that the application by the first and second respondents dated October 4 2022 does not have merit and the same is dismissed and costs will be in the cause,” ruled Lady Justice Onginjo.
However, the petitioners suffered a setback in their case after the court struck out their request for the inclusion of renowned lawyer George Kithi, Public Service Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa Karisa Katana and Michael Tinga Jefwa as interested parties to the case.
“This Court, therefore, finds that the interested parties cannot be sustained in the petition for reasons that they were improperly enjoined by the petitioners, and secondly, the mention of the first interested party in paragraphs 57, 103, 106, and 155 is not advised and therefore the Court finds that no prejudice has been shown that will be suffered by the first interested party by non-joinder. So the application to strike out the interested parties and particularly the first interested party is allowed with costs in the cause,” she added.
The three petitioners, Justine Ringa Chirume, Justin Charo Baya, and Salim Chai Tsui filed a petition against the IEBC, the Kilifi County Returning Officer Hussein Gurre, Governor Mung’aro, and his deputy Flora Chibule.
An application by the petitioners seeking scrutiny of the ballot boxes was also allowed with IEBC being ordered to secure the ballot boxes in the matter.
They claim in the petition that Munga’ro, who won with 143,773 votes, was not legitimately elected because the election was marred by irregularities and the results did not reflect the wishes of the people.
Aisha Jumwa, George Kithi who finished second and third in the August general election with 65,893 and 64,321 votes, respectively, and Michael Tinga have been listed as interested parties.
The matter will be heard on Monday, November 21, 2022.
