Garissa Governor at Supreme Court to challenge his ouster

By Kurian Musa

Nairobi, Kenya: Ousted Garissa Governor, Nadhif Jama, has moved to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision to nullify his election.

Through Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, the application seeking to overturn the entire appeal court decision was lodged before Judge Njoki Ndung’u.

Judge Ndung’u certified the case as urgent and directed that the matter be heard inter-parties after being served to the respondents. The application shall be heard by a two-judge Bench.

The backlog of election petition cases in the Supreme Court continues to grow following the application by Nadhif.

His application is the third gubernatorial election being contested in the Supreme Court.

Meru Governor, Peter Munya, also has a case awaiting a ruling while the Migori case, Okoth Obado, awaits a full Bench hearing on May 5.

The appellate judges said the Garissa election was not carried out in a free and fair manner. They also said it was unconstitutional for voting to be carried out for a second day since it flouted timelines set aside for the exercise.

In his appeal, Nadhif will be challenging certain issues of law that the appeal court, apparently, did not consider when delivering their verdict.

The appeal court while nullifying the election of Nadhif, said the High Court should have ordered for scrutiny of votes.