Kibra voter wants ballot printing stopped, says Mariga’s clearance erroneous

Jubilee candidate for Kibra by-election MacDonald Mariga is presented with clearance certificate by IEBC Returning Officer Beatrice Muli at the IEBC offices in Kibra on September 16, 2019. [David Gichuru, Standard]

A petitioner has moved to the High Court to challenge the legality of the nomination of MacDonald Mariga as Jubilee’s candidate in the Kibra by-election citing erroneous process in verifying his voter status.

In the petition, Leina Konchellah, through Odindo & Company Advocates has lined up Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, MacDonald Mariga, Kibra Constituency Returning Officer and the Jubilee Party as the respondents.

Konchellah avers in the petition she is a Kibra Constituency voter hence has the interest of ensuring that all the legal requirements are followed in the preparation of the by-lections for the parliamentary seat.

She indicates that she is registered at Kang’ethe Primary School Polling Station in Kibra Constituency.

Aligned in the petitions are a number of prayers that the petitioner wants to be considered before the running of the voting exercise.

For instance, Konchellah is seeking to stop the IEBC from printing the ballot papers for the mini-poll until the determination of her petition.

Prayer number three in her petition reads as follows:

The petitioner also singles out the IEBC for blame by terming clearance of MacDonald Mariga by the Dispute Resolution Committee on September 16 as utter disregard of electoral laws.

“This decision violates the Article 99 (a) and (b) of the Constitution in that it has enabled second Respondent (Mr Mariga), who is not a registered voter and has questionable integrity to participate in the said by-elections,” she states in the petition.

She is therefore seeking conservatory order to stop the printing of ballot papers stating that failure to act as such will only infringe on voters’ rights and contravene the law.

On Monday, the IEBC upheld Mariga’s nomination after he challenged an earlier decision where his nomination was rejected on account that his details were not found in the IEBC register.

But after the dispute resolution meeting which was convened by the IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati, the commission announced that the former Harambee Stars midfielder was registered and met all the requirements to vie for the seat.

IEBC Returning Officer Beatrice Muli thereafter presented Mariga with a clearance certificate at their offices in Kibra Constituency.

The IEBC has set November 7, 2019, as the voting day for the Kibra by-elections. The seat fell vacant after the area MP Ken Okoth succumbed to cancer in July this year.