Election official defends Starehe polls outcome

By NANCY AKINYI

A senior official in the 2007 Starehe constituency elections says he stands by the results he announced.

Returning Officer Manasseh Mugasia told the court: "I did my job professionally and do stand by the results I announced after the poll."

Mugasia has been on the witness box since Monday testifying in an election petition in which he has been sued alongside Assistant Minister Margaret Wanjiru and the Interim Independent Electoral Commission.

Petitioner Maina Kamanda’s accusation against the returning officer and election officials is that they caused flaws in the process.

Kamanda also claims the returning officer and other election officials were bribed to skew the results in favour of Bishop Margaret Wanjiru.

On cross-examination by Kamanda’s advocate Kioko Kilukumi, Mugasia distanced himself from claims he complained about inadequate facilities to train election officials.

He told court he trained the presiding officers and their deputies and did not experience any difficulty due to lack of facilities.

"The facilities were more than enough and there is no way I could have complained," he said.

Mugasia spoke when Kilukumi presented to him a report and a letter in which he allegedly complained about lack of facilities and him experiencing difficulties in training election officials. Mugasia also said his evaluation report in the General Election was stamped, signed and dated.

He told trial judge Kihara Kariuki he did not author any report that did not have his signature, a stamp and date. His testimony comes barely a month after a votes scrutiny unearthed numerous election flaws.

Kamanda surpassed the 28,601 votes he got in the last election with more than 21,000 votes. In the scrutiny, Kamanda got 49,306 votes.

Wanjiru had also surpassed the 29,496 votes she garnered with more than 5,000 votes. She garnered 34, 871 votes.