•The order Kuria is speaking about required the commission to open the servers following claims of irregularities in the presidential petition at the Supreme Court.
•Kuria seeks to suspend the ongoing proceedings commenced against him.
Moses Kuria takes IEBC to court over vote-rigging remarks
Image: FREDRICK OMONDI
Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria has challenged the ongoing proceedings before the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over poll rigging remarks he made last month during the UDA party NDC.
He says the electoral body commenced the process not to preserve the sanctity of anything, but to protect itself from public scrutiny, arising from its refusal to comply with Supreme Court orders 5 years later.
The order Kuria is speaking about required the commission to open the servers following claims of irregularities in the presidential petition at the Supreme Court.
This order is yet to be complied with.
In an urgent application before the High Court sitting in Milimani, Kuria seeks to suspend the ongoing proceedings commenced against him.
Also sought is an order directing the commission to avail a report of the purported investigations conducted.
He further wants the court to order the commission to cease any kind of investigations against him over the same subject matter and a declaration issued that the summons by the IEBC are unconstitutional.
The IEBC last month summoned Kuria over remarks he made that they helped steal votes for President Uhuru Kenyatta in the previous elections.
The commission in the summons indicated it was seized a report and material against Kuria for violating the electoral code of conduct.
This however was not availed to him when he presented himself before the electoral body.
The statement that saw the MP being summoned reads: "Kuna wengine wanasema ati kura ya mlima itagawanywa; mheshimiwa Ann Waiguru, Rigathi Gachagua, Muthomi Njuki, Kimani Ichung’wa, Senator Linturi, Alice Wahome, Faith Gitau, Kimani wa Matangi…Sisi ndio tulikuwa tukishikilia Uhuru kura, na sisi ndio tulikuwa tunamuibia kura”.
The legislator made the above remarks during the United Democratic Alliance party delegates conference at the Kasarani Gymnasium Arena on March 15.
IEBC claims that the said remarks created an impression that the jubilee party to which he belonged stole the 2017 elections in favour of Uhuru.
It also argued that the statement cast aspersions on the integrity of the 2017 general elections and specifically that the voting system developed by them is not secure.
But according to Kuria, the IEBC is intentional in frustrating his rights to participate in elections in any capacity should he choose to do so.
He says the whole process before the commission is flawed and was commenced in bad faith.
"The commission is now asking a third party with no knowledge of how its system works or why it refused to open the servers to demonstrate whether or not there were irregularities," posed Kuria.
The commission he argues has no jurisdiction both under the elections act and the constitution to summon him or subject him to the impugned process on its own motion.
He argues article 252 of the constitution which the commission had 'ignorantly relied upon' only gave 4 commissions the power to summon and iebc was not one of them.
"The electoral code of conduct was only applicable during the election period. It only applied to the political parties, the candidates who were participating in the election or those who had been nominated under the electoral laws for the current election period," Kuria says he had not subscribed to the code, nor had he submitted his candidature to IEBC.
On Monday, Justice Anthony Mrima quashed a decision of the electoral agency to summon Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege over her remarks that the 2017 presidential election was marred by malpractices.
Mrima said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) Electoral Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee does not have the powers to issue the summons.