Embu Governor Martin Wambora claims his opponent in the August 8 election has already tampered with electoral materials.
Before the case challenging his win could kick off, Mr Wambora filed an urgent application seeking to strike out the petition by former Senator Lenny Kivuti.
Wambora claimed ballot papers had been tampered with and could not be relied upon in the hearing and determination of the petition.
Mr Kivuti had earlier applied to have the ballot papers and KIEMS data secured to prevent interference.
The court had ordered that all the election materials be put in safe custody and further directed all the parties to put their seals on the ballot boxes to prevent tampering.
Wambora, through his lawyer Kithinji Marete, argued that Kivuti, while implementing the court order, tampered with the materials.
PRE-TRIAL HEARING
The new development delayed pre-trial hearing that was to start before Justice William Musyoka.
Kivuti, through his lawyer Wilfred Nyamu, pleaded with the court to dismiss the application, arguing Wambora was using it to delay the hearing of the case.
But the other respondents argued that the application would not affect the timelines.
Justice Musyoka fixed the hearing of the application to tomorrow 2.30pm and warned the parties that he would not accept further applications to delay the case.
In the petition, IEBC, Embu County Returning Officer Daniel Lenarum, Wambora and his Deputy David Kariuki are the first, second, third and fourth respondents respectively.
Kivuti, who got 96,775 votes against Wambora’s 97,760, maintains the poll was not free and fair.
