The High Court in Kakamega has upheld the election victory of Moses Malulu as Malava MP.
Justice Rechel Ngetich said the petition filed by Seth Panyako, his competitor in the August poll, was never supported with binding evidence to warrant nullifying the election.
"The petitioner failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the existence of voter bribery, voter intimidation, the existence of ghost voters, ballot stuffing, election violence and failure of KIEMs kits. The petition is hereby dismissed with costs," she said.
She, at the same time, held that the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) carried out a fairly credible poll that announced Malulu winner with 22,891 votes against Panyako's 20,133.
IEBC, through lawyer Peter Samba, had distanced itself from allegations of bungling the polls, asking the court to throw out the petition for lacking merit.
Among other allegations the IEBC denied is that its worker, who Panyako said was related to Malulu, had help tilt votes in his (Malulu) favour.
Mr Samba gave documentary evidence that laid bare all their employees during the polls held on August 9, which showed the woman in question was in fact, not an employee of the commission.
He also dismissed claims by the petitioner that IEBC used vehicles belonging to Malulu's allies working in the Malava Constituency Development Fund (CDF) office to transport election materials.
"That cannot be the truth as the IEBC hired vehicles from Panamarc Transport Company Limited based in Bungoma. The company transported all our electoral materials in Malava and Matungu constituency," Samba said before Justice Ngetich.
"The KIEMs kits failure also did not affect Panyako alone by making his supporters give up on voting as he alleges," he said.
Panyako had alleged that there was a deliberate failure of the KIEMS kits and that the IEBC did not use them to identify voters in half of the polling stations within Malava constituency, partly as a "voter suppression strategy".
In his defence, Malulu said he neither sponsored violence nor bribed voters as Panyako alleged.
He said that on the material day of voting, he turned up to cast his ballot and greeted a few voters who acknowledged his presence and that could not amount to bribery.
"I later on left for my home and waited for the tallying and announcement of results without influencing anyone to engage in violence," he said.
Panyako sued the IEBC, its Malava returning officer Juma Joseph Oduor, and Malulu saying the three-term MP, among other things, took to giving voters money on queues in several wards including Chemuche, Manda Shivanga and Kabras East.
He attached an affidavit, including that of his agent Joseph Werabunuku who claimed he raised the bribery allegations with IEBC officials but was put off.
