The Orange Democratic Movement Party has suffered a major blow after the elections of its two Members of Parliament were nullified on Friday, March 3.
Justice Alfred Mabeya of the Malindi High Court in Kilifi County annulled the election of Magarini MP Harrison Garama Kombe on grounds of irregularities.
Among the irregularities cited by the judge include vote stuffing and inconsistencies between the total number of votes tallied and votes captured on ballot papers.
Consequently, the High Court ordered a fresh election to allow the constituency's voters to duly elect a new representative.
In addition, the High Court in Garissa annulled the election of Lagdera MP Abdikadir Hussein, citing irregularities too.
According to the election results declared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Hussein garnered 5,939 votes to clinch the seat ahead of United Democratic Alliance's- UDA's Abdiqani Zeitun who had 4,863 votes.
Hussein's competitor in the August 2022 polls, Zeitun, had moved to the court to challenge Hussein's win in the hotly contested race.
The Friday, March 3, verdict on the Lagdera Constituency election came days after four voters moved to court claiming that Abdikadir Hussein was not a Kenyan citizen and thus was not eligible for election.
In their petition, the four voters through their lawyer, Mwangi Ndegwa, sought the court's intervention to clarify the criteria followed in clearing Hussein for election as an MP.
If unchallenged in a higher court, ODM stands to lose two more MPs in the National Assembly - which would be a continuation of a streak where the Azimio coalition yielded numbers to the rival Kenya Kwanza Coalition.
This is even as both sides of the political divide gear for upcoming bills and amendments forwarded by President William Ruto.
The two factions are expected to go head-on during the debate of passing amendments touching on the number of nominated MPs in parliament, and the creation of a Senate Oversight fund- among other proposals.
