Two Kisii parliamentary candidates have threatened to move to court to seek legal redress over the election results from two constituencies; Nyaribari Chache and Kitutu Chache North.
The candidates; Zaheer Jhanda and Ogamba Migos of Wiper Party and ODM respectively accuse their rivals in Jubilee of having tampered with the results right from the polling stations and at the tallying centres.
Addressing the media in Kisii, Zaheer; the MP candidate from Nyaribari Chache accused the MP elect Mr Richard Tongi (Jubilee) of having interfered with the results from Kiogoro Ward and having colluded with IEBC officials at the Constituency tallying center.
“I won the elections only for the MP elect to use dubious means to earn the certificate. We are moving to court to seek justice,” said Zaheer.
He explained that he had teamed with three other candidates to launch a petition and have those who rigged the elections held responsible.
“My agents from Kiogoro Ward were coerced to switch off their phones and at this point we lost track of all our votes.”
However, Mr Tongi said that he won the elections on a free and fair grounds and he will respect the will of the people for having given him a second term through a democratic process.
Zaheer came second with 11, 710 votes while ODM’s Chris Biachege was third with 10,444 votes. Tongi was declared the winner with 14,140.
In Kitutu Chache North lawyer Ogamba Migos who was the ODM candidate alleged that his key opponent and MP elect Mr Jimmy Angwenyi had ensured that he had no agents in all the polling stations.
“Despite having been allowed to recruit party agents they were not allowed at the polling stations. Am shocked that ODM presidential agents were forced to sign the forms that were used to announce the winner,” said Migos.
He said that they had gathered enough information to hold a petition in court. “People are crying and angry at the turn of events. Some individuals cannot determine our future by taking us through painful paths.”
Angwenyi was announced the winner after garnering 15,844. Migos was third with 6,716 while Arege garnered 2,633 emerging third.
Last month, Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu said they are expecting more than 300 petitions from the 2017 general elections.
She had pointed out that election petitions are expected to be twice the number field in 2013 adding that the judiciary was confident about handling them.
The Judiciary had trained several magistrates to handle petitions by MCAs with some judges sent for a temporarily transfer to stations where a high number of petitions will be received.
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