Former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar yesterday said he wants to withdraw his poll petition against Governor Hassan Joho’s win, saying the court is biased.
Omar has cited lack of confidence in judge Lydia Achode who is handling the petition.
In a letter to his lawyer Yusuf Abubakar, Omar said he would not be subjected to a process “which is skewed”. He also said the process is severely and almost irreparably eroded.
“It will be hypocritical for the petitioners to proceed with this matter, when they believe the honourable court is biased against them,” he said in the letter.
“I therefore instruct you to withdraw the petition whose outcome is obvious.”
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On Friday, Justice Achode dismissed an application that she recuse herself from the petition. On January 11, there was a bitter exchange between advocates representing Joho and Omar. This was after Omar filed an application seeking Justice Achode’s recusal from the petition.
He accused Achode of open bias and double standards in handling applications. However on Friday, Achode said, “The petitioner has never appealed any ruling by the court to express his dissatisfaction.”
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She said on several occasions, Omar’s lawyer had shown mutual agreement with court decisions. Achode said it was unfair for the petitioner to term her decisions biased yet she had always portrayed a fair ruling.
The judge said the application was full of personal emotions by the petitioner and his claims lacked “legs to stand”.
“It was not enough for the former senator to make mere allegations. He should have given reasonable grounds that there is bias,” she said.
In November last year,
Omar said his loss was mostly caused by people confusing his name Hassan with that of his rival. He said presiding officers at the tallying centres counted votes cast in his name as Joho’s. He said this was observed since they both share the name ‘Hassan’.
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