Peter Munya retains seat, court orders investigation on malpractices

Peter Munya celebrates with his supportes outside the Supreme Court after he was reinstated as Meru Governor. [PHOTO: FIDELIS KABUNYI/STANDARD]

Meru, Kenya: Meru Governor Peter Munya has retained his seat after the nullification of his election was overturned by the Supreme Court last evening.

In what marked the close of a long legal battle for the seat, the Supreme Court quashed a judgement in which the Court of Appeal in Nyeri had in March this year nullified Munya’s election.

There was jubilation as his supporters celebrated the verdict. 

In Meru town, residents poured into the streets as cars and boda boda riders hooted in celebration.

As dusk settled, small groups also gathered in the Makutano area, just next to the town.

Prof Judith Mukwanjeru, who had been glued to the television at her home could not hide her joy. “Munya is a great leader and he can now concentrate on delivering his mandate. We congratulate him for the win.”

Cars mounted with loudspeakers went around town to break the news.

lawful poll

Seven Supreme Court judges faulted their appellate colleagues for nullifying an election that had largely been held in accordance with the law.

They, however, retained an order for the Director of Public Prosecutions to order investigations into allegations of malpractices against two electoral officials.

Munya beat former Assistant Minister Kilemi Mwiria with 3,436 votes. But a petition against his election was first filed at the Meru High Court last year by a voter Dickson Mwenda who is a close political ally of Dr Mwiria.

He had claimed the gubernatorial election had been marred by bribery of voters, violence, intimidation and other irregularities.

Mwenda asked for scrutiny and recount of the ballots in four constituencies.

The High Court dismissed the petition holding among other reasons that the petitioner had not stated the specific polling stations whose votes he wanted scrutinised and recounted.

The petitioner successfully appealed leading to the nullification of the elections on March 12.

Court of Appeal judges Alnashir Visram, Jamila Mohammed and Otieno Odek had declared the election null and void, citing various omissions in the High Court judgment that upheld Munya’s victory last year.

They said the Meru High Court Judge Arron Makau—in his judgement dated September 23, 2013—did not adequately interrogate the evidence, including that on tally discrepancies which emerged after a mini-recount targeting seven of 953 polling stations.

They had faulted the judge for disregarding the votes margin between Munya and  Mwiria. They termed the margin as minor, representing 0.819 per cent of votes cast. Vote discrepancies This, they said, being less than one per cent, warranted a keener interrogation of the petitioner’s evidence on vote discrepancies.

 Recount

Munya filed an appeal at the Supreme Court through lawyers Tom Ojienda and Okong’o Omogeni.

Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal judges sitting in Nyeri gave their verdict.

 “Scrutiny and recount may be applied for at any stage after filing a petition and before its determination. The application for scrutiny must, however, be based on reasonable grounds and not a fishing expedition,” the judges ruled.

They faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that the scrutiny could be ordered even where the petitioner had not asked for it.

The judges said a petition court had the discretion to order for the scrutiny on its own motion if it considered it right for making a fair and proper decision.

They noted that the Court of Appeal did not look at various other decisions of courts

The Supreme Court judges maintained that where an election has been substantially conducted in accordance with the constitution and the electoral law, then irregularities in the poll should not be used to nullify the outcome.

 

— Additional reporting by Phares Mutembei.