• Court rules that Karua could not prove she suffered prejudice when IEBC failed to produce the Kenya Integrated Election Management System kits.
• Law provides that an election petition ought to be heard and determined within six months from date of its filing.
Image: FILE
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging the election of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru on grounds it was time-barred.
In a decision read by Justice Isaac Lenaola, the apex court said it had no jurisdiction to handle the matter since the timeframe for filing the suit had lapsed.
The law provides that an election petition ought to be heard and determined within six months from date of its filing.
Justice Lenaola directed that each party bears costs of the proceedings at the High Court, Appellate Court and the Supreme Court.
The petition was dismissed in December last year by a bench of three judges but in her appeal Narc Kenya's Martha Karua told the Supreme Court that she was not given a chance to provide strong evidence to prove glaring irregularities in more than 100 polling stations.
Through Lawyers Paul Nyamodi and Kamotho Waiganjo, Waiguru had told Chief Justice David Maraga, Mohamed Ibrahim, Smoking Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u and Isaac Lenaola that the Court of Appeal exhaustively considered all grievances raised by Karua and declared that the gubernatorial election was conducted in accordance with the law.
The appellate court in upholding Waiguru’s victory said Karua failed to convince the court she suffered prejudice when the electoral commission failed to produce the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIMS) kit.
Karua had moved to the Court of Appeal a week after Kerugoya High Court dismissed her petition challenging the election of Governor Waiguru.
She challenged Kerugoya High Court's decision of dismissing her petition.
Judge Lucy Gitari threw out the petition on grounds that it lacked merit and ordered her to pay costs amounting to Sh5 million.
The Narc Kenya party leader vied for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat in the 2017 General Election but lost to Waiguru who garnered 153,353 votes.
Karua got 116,626 votes while the incumbent Joseph Ndathi garnered 4,496.
Karua said through her twitter after the ruling that she was not satisfied by court's decision.
"I did not get justice at the court but Aluta continua. The journey to success is long and widing," Karua said.
Karua thanked those who stood with her in the judicial marathon, including her lawyer Gitobu Imanyara.
Edited by R.Wamochie