Attorney General Githu Muigai and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) want a case in which an activist is challenging the election of Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho struck out on grounds that the constitutional court has no jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
And IEBC declared that the activist behind the case was pursuing a vendetta egged on by Suleiman Shahbal, the losing candidate at last year’s gubernatorial election.
IEBC lawyer Sanjeev Kagram told the constitutional court in Mombasa yesterday that the petition filed by Silas Otuke over claims Joho’s degree is fake should not be entertained by the court as it is not the right forum.
Kagram told the court that the issues Otuke had raised in his petition had already been canvassed and determined through several courts and in an election petition filed by Joho’s main challenger Suleiman Shahbal
Kagram, who was submitting before a three-judge Bench chaired by Justice Christine Meoli, asked the court to strike out the petition saying Otuke had no justifiable reasons to move to the court.
The lawyer said claims by Otuke that his rights had been infringed by Joho’s election are misplaced because he had not demonstrated so.
Kagram asked the court to strike out Otuke’s case to save IEBC money its was spending defending itself.
The lawyer said Otuke should lobby the Mombasa County Assembly to impeach Joho if he wants to remove him from office.
‘OPTIONS ARE OVER’
“If the petitioner wants to have the Governor removed from leadership because he does not like him over claims he has no degree, it is for him to lobby and have him impeached, which is the only option he has.
This is because election petition and pre-election petition options are over,” said Kagram
Otuke has filed documents from Uganda Criminal Investigation and Council for Higher Education questioning the degree.
The Attorney General, who was an interested party in the suit, also agrees with IEBC that the matter had already been dealt with in the election petition and other cases and asked the court to strike it out. “The AG is also supporting preliminary objection which has been raised by other parties,” said state counsel Oscar Eredi.
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