Crushed hopes as two legislators sent home

Ugenya and Embakasi South MPs lost their seats yesterday in what judges referred to as massive irregularities in their election.

Chris Karan (Ugenya) and Julius Mawathe (Embakasi South) both first time MPs, were declared not to have been legally elected.

Mawathe won before the High Court, was beaten on appeal by his opponent Irshad Sumra in a ruling that the Supreme Court affirmed.

It emerged that Embakasi South returning officer was playing a bi-partisan role, which would not have given a fair outcome.

The court established that the officer was a Wiper party official, hence his verdict on who won was skewed.

The court also found that there were five sets of results of Embakasi South, which cast doubts on which were the legitimate votes cast by the constituents.

According to the court, the returning officer blamed fatigue for the different results but did appear before the court to buttress his argument.

The Supreme Court also ruled Mawathe did not effectively defend his win.

For Karan, the scales of justice had already tilted in favour of his opponent David Ochieng from the word go.

The High Court was the first to draw Karan’s blood, but he appealed, hoping to get some reprieve and he lost again.

Karan’s hopes to retain the Ugenya did not die and he moved to the apex court, but the judges, in agreeing with the lower courts, crushed his hopes by ruling that his case lacked merit.

On the other hand, the court affirmed Nandi Hills lawmaker Alfred Keter’s win by finding that the single reason why his election had been annulled by the High Court was not too big to affect the final result.

Keter had been dethroned for campaigning after the deadline set by the electoral agency. However, the judges felt this was not too massive to taint the credibility of the election.

“Nandi Hills Constituency election was conducted substantially in accordance with the law,” the court ruled. Marsabit Woman Rep Safia Adan also survived after her opponent Nasra Ibrahim failed to prosecute her case.