Kirinyaga governor election results were cooked, Karua tells court

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua. [Photo: Courtesy]

Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua says there was a predetermined move to ensure Anne Waiguru won the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat.

While being cross-examined yesterday, Ms Karua, who emerged second in the election, claimed that after analysing the situation and looking at results and other documents, it was evident some manipulation was done to achieve the result.

Karua told the court that a third of her agents were barred from accessing the polling stations, leading to Waiguru's victory "as the process was manipulated to yield the desired results."

“Conspiracy was wider than is expressed in our petition papers after perusing some of the documents the IEBC availed to this court,” she testified.

During yesterday's session, it also emerged that Karua won in most of the polling stations she had claimed in her petition that her supporters were locked out of on the polling day.

Although she admitted on cross-examination by IEBC lawyer Joe Kathungu that this was the reality, Karua still insisted that her agents were excluded from the election process last year.

The lawyer took her through a list of polling stations picked randomly across the county and she confirmed that she indeed led in all of them. “But even if the results indicated so, most of my agents were locked out and at the same time we have now discovered the irregularities and illegalities were more than what we have filed in this court," she said.

Mr Kathungu also asked Karua why her agent Joseph Kimani signed in at 4am at Mianya Primary School polling station, yet she has insisted that her agents were locked out before the polling begun and during vote tallying.

She was also told to explain why an agent for Mercy Njoki, an independent candidate, reported about the petitioner's agents being barred at Karani polling station and not her own.

Judge Lucy Gitari ordered one of Karua’s witnesses said to have withdrawn from the case after being threatened by a Mr Kamwaki to report the matter to police.