Voters in Wajir West will be going back to be ballot to vote for their MP again less than two years after the last General Election.
This follows Friday’s nullification of Mohamed Kolosh’s win.
The Supreme Court directed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to conduct fresh elections in the constituency.
Early last year, trial judge Francis Tuiyot nullified Kolosh’s election on grounds that Abdirahiman Mohamed, the petitioner, had proved that results in two polling stations - Qara and Korich - were manipulated in favour of Kolosh.
In the two polling stations, those who cast their votes exceeded the number of registered voters, Tuiyot found.
Kolosh had beaten petitioner Abdirahman Mohamed of Kanu by 477 votes.
Witnesses told the court that the final result announced at Qara showed that Kolosh got 319 votes while Ibrahim had two. But when the returning officer announced the results at the constituency tallying centre at Griftu Pastoralist Training Centre, the MP’s votes had been inflated to 540.
Kolosh moved to the Court of Appeal, which overturned Tuiyott’s decision and ruled that he was validly elected as MP for Wajir West.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court judges unanimously disagreed with the decision of the Court of Appeal and set aside its judgment that upheld the election.
The ruling read by Justice Njoki Ndung’u faulted the appeal judges for upholding the election, saying the results of one polling station, namely Qara, could have shifted to either of the candidates.
Read:
Kolosh had got temporary reprieve at the Court of Appeal which ruled that elections were conducted in line with the law and that the nullification of his win by the High Court in March was without basis.
Petitioner Abdirahman wanted the Court of Appeal to find that the High Court erred by failing to declare him the winner having ruled that results in two polling stations were inflated in Kolosh favour.
But justices William Ouko, Patrick Kiage and Agnes Murgor said such a decision could only have been made if all the votes that were cast in the constituency were recounted.
“The appeal is devoid of merits and it’s hereby dismissed. The cross appeal succeed in its entirety and we hereby set a set the decision rendered by the High court,” the judges ruled.
Justice Tuiyot had ordered the IEBC to conduct fresh elections citing a deliberate plan to suppress the will of the voters. He had also found that in Qara polling station, the number of votes cast exceeded those of the registered voters by 162.
His view was that the outcome was soiled because it is difficult to distinguish the “good votes from the bad ones”.