Petition against Mavoko MP Patrick Makau dismissed

By Daniel Nzia

MACHAKOS, KENYA: The High Court has dismissed a petition filed against Mavoko MP Patrick Makau.

High Court Judge Lillian Mutende was forced to temporary hold the reading of the petition ruling as Makau and his supporters filled the court room with songs and ululations.

Justice Mutende ruled that she found the parliamentary election was conducted in accordance with the law.

“I find the election to have been fairly and transparently conducted in accordance with the election laws. The verdict of the Electoral body must be respected”, she said in her more than one hour judgment.

Petitioners Wilson Munguti, Philip Kilonzo, Stephen Muthoka, John Malii, Joseph Makau and Solomon Kimuyu had moved to the High Court to have Makau’s election nullified.

All the petitioners, their lawyers or agents were not in court when the judgment was delivered.

They had cited several election malpractices before and during the election among them vote buying, bribery and failure by their agents to sign Forms 35.

But Justice Mutende dismissed the claims arguing that the petitioners and their agents failed to proof the allegations beyond reasonable doubts.

She said the burden of proof of all the claims by the petitioners squarely lay on their hands and that of their agents through their testimonial evidences.

“A high degree of proof is required where vote buying and bribery allegations are concerned. The petitioners failed to do so in this case”, observed the Judge.

She also said the petitioners failed to proof claims of cancellations and alterations of results on Forms 35 and 36, some of which did not belong to the IEBC.

 The judge ruled that failure by agents of the petitioners to append their signatures on the relevant election results forms as alleged could not validate the results.

The Returning Officer Faith Mugo told the court she declared Makau the winner after he garnered 19,724 votes against the first petitioner Munguti’s 2,426.

She dismissed claims by the petitioners that their agents were chased away from polling and tallying centers as untrue.