The High Court in
Machakos
has today upheld the election of Yatta MP
Charles
Kilonzo in the August 8,
2017, general elections.
Justice Aggrey Mchelule
termed the petition by Francis Mwangangi as one that was incompetent and lacked merit.
The Court said the petitioner failed to prove his allegations that the election was marred by irregularities and malpractices and that Kilonzo committed election offences.
Justice Agrrey Mchelule observed that there was no evidence given on voter bribery claims as raised by the petitioner.
He further held that the petitioner could not justify allegations that his agents were locked out of the polling stations as no name of such agents was presented in Court.
“The Petitioner in his affidavit claimed that 69 of his agents were denied access to the polling stations but none of these said agents was called to testify. The petitioner did also not dispute the results declared in the said polling stations”, said Muchelule in his judgement.
The Judge also dismissed as vague a claim by the petitioner that Keims Kitts failed to work in some polling stations as alleged by Mwangangi.
He also disagreed with the petitioner’s assertions that the Constituency Returning officer was not validly nominated and ruled that a corrigendum issued by IEBC on May 26, 2017 enough proved that the officer was validly nominated to conduct the elections.
The Judgement came as a major excitement to the supporters of Charles Kilonzo who said that Justice had been served to the people of Yatta.
“We are very excited because the Judge has upheld the voice of the Yatta residents which was spoken on the August 8, 2017”, said one of the MP’s supporters.
But while addressing Journalist’s outside the Court, Mwangangi’s lead Lawyer Andrew Makundi said that they were going to appeal the decision.
“The judge is entitled to make is judgement, our appeal will purely be based on matters of law,"Makundi said.