Kamukunji MP wants third judge off his case

By Wahome Thuku

Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua on Tuesday lost an umpteenth application to stop an election petition against him after Justice Mary Ang’awa rejected it.

Soon after, the MP renewed his demand for Justice Ang’awa — the third judge in the petition — to disqualify herself.

Through lawyer Kibe Mungai, Mbugua demanded to know when his pending application for Ang’awa’s disqualification would be heard.

ODM candidate Ibrahim Ahmed filed the petition in August 2008 soon after Mbugua (PNU) was declared winner with 22,614 votes. Ahmed (ODM) garnered 16,604 votes.

The defunct ECK had called off the elections on December 28, 2007 after chaos erupted at Shauri Moyo tallying centre.

The ECK officials had completed tallying results from only 135 out of the total 157 polling stations. Mbugua went to court and obtained orders compelling ECK to complete the process. The first judge in the petition, Kalpana Rawal, disqualified herself last February citing threats by unknown people. Justice Fred Ochieng also pulled out last month over claims of bribery made in court.

Ang’awa was appointed by Chief Justice Evan Gicheru to take over the case early this month and Mbugua filed the application rejecting her. He also wrote a protest letter to the CJ demanding for another judge.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mungai applied for an order that video clips produced as evidence be accompanied by audio transcripts.

Mbugua and Ahmed have produced the clips, each to show his version of what transpired during tallying.

"The nature of the video is that it’s both visual and audio and we need to have the audio transcript," Mungai said. The application was, however, opposed by the petitioner’s lawyer Steve Owino and Stephen Adere for the IIEC.

Ordered to pay costs

Mr Owino said there was no provision for transcripts in evidence law. Justice Ang’awa ruled against Mbugua and also ordered him to pay costs to the petitioner, the other parties.

Mungai then applied for stay of the proceedings pending his appeal against that ruling.

The application was also rejected. At that point he told the judge: "May I be told in plain English now when my application for your disqualification would be heard or why the date can’t be fixed?"

He said if the petition proceeded the application would be overtaken by events.

The judge only ordered that the proceedings and her earlier ruling be typed for the lawyers and then asked Mungai to continue cross-examining the petitioner.