Court won't declare Karaba winner

By Evelyn Kwamboka

Efforts by a Kirinyaga Central parliamentary aspirant to be declared winner before the by-election have been thwarted.

Daniel Karaba will have to face his opponents in the hotly contested by-election today.

Justice Daniel Musinga said the order Mr Karaba sought could not be granted.

"I have considered the issues raised by the petitioner and they require serious consideration because they will develop a jurisprudence," the judge said.

The High Court judge said on March 21, he would give reasons as to why he declined to declare Karaba area MP.

Through his advocate, Karaba wanted a direction that the electoral body and the returning officer reconvene the tallying centre for the constituency and publicly declare and announce in the Kenya gazette that he was the duly elected MP in the 2007 General Election.

"The MP’s case filed at the Constitutional Court had been put on hold by Chief Justice Evan Gicheru, to pave way for the election petition against incumbent MP, is concluded," Justice Mohammed Warsame, who ruled that Mr Ngata Kariuki was illegally in office, concluded the petition.

A few weeks later, the constitutional reference petition was referred to Justice Musinga, to hear and determine it.

Karaba told the court comments and observations of the Kriegler Commission regarding the election verified the results held by ECK for Kirinyaga Central.

"The said wrongful declaration and swearing-in of the wrong person is a travesty and transgression of democratic principles and rights practices by civil societies and nations like Kenya," he says.

Karaba, who sued along with his four constituents, also wanted Kariuki to surrender all the income he received from Parliament and the positions he enjoyed, and all the privileges awarded to him.

Wrong person

The case was on grounds that the swearing-in of a wrong person in Parliament is a transgression of the governing principles of a republican system like Kenya.

He claimed the person who garnered the highest number of votes should be the one representing Kirinyaga Central and named the Attorney General, Electoral Commission of Kenya and Returning Officer James Kariuki Gitahi as the respondents.

In the scrutiny and tallying of forms 16 and 17 A from AU, the court found out that petitioner Dickson Karaba had 17,270 votes against Kariuki’s 17,266.