- He said the results were verified and approved before he declared Wanga as the winner.
- Apopa also defended some of his junior officers whose stations had entry inconsistencies in polling station diaries.
Image: ROBERT OMOLLO
Homa Bay IEBC returning officer Fredrick Apopa on Monday defended results he used to announce Gladys Wanga winner of the governor race.
Apopa declared Wanga and her deputy Oyugi Magwanga of ODM the winner with 244,559 votes against their competitor Evans Kidero and his running mate Elijah Kodo who garnered 154,182 votes. UDA’s Mark Rabudi emerged third with 1,244 votes.
Kidero, who is challenging the election of Wanga at Homa Bay High Court, has claimed before Justice Roselyn Aburili that the county returning officer used wrong results to declare the winner.
Apopa dismissed the allegations saying the irregularities and malpractices the petitioner was talking about did not affect the results he used for declaring the winner.
He said the results were verified and approved before he declared Wanga as the winner.
Apopa also defended some of his junior officers whose stations had entry inconsistencies in polling station diaries, saying that some agents refused to append their signatures due to their own personal interest.
Some agents could leave polling station because their candidate failed to provide them with food or pay them the money they agreed on. Some quit after realising that the candidates they supported would not win.
“There was no serious issue in the Homa Bay gubernatorial election that could stop me from announcing the results. I followed due process and thorough checking before announcing the winner,” Apopa said.
Dismissing the claims that there were serious and glaring inconsistencies in the number of votes cast and the people who were identified by Kiems kits, Apopa said that the petitioner cannot prove the allegations.
He said some voters walk into polling stations with set minds that they will spoil votes by wrongly marking ballot papers or put them in wrong boxes.
Apopa also said people who vote cannot exceed the number of those identified by Kiems kits.
“We trained agents on how they should undertake their duties during elections. Since none of them raised serious mistakes over the results, I believe the results announced were appropriate,” he added.
In his petition, Kidero claims that the electoral agency colluded with other parties being accused in the case to alter results in Forms 37A at polling stations in favour of Wanga.
Kidero has listed IEBC as the first respondent followed by Apopa as the second respondent. Wanga, Magwanga and ODM party are the third, fourth and fifth respondents respectively.
Last week, Kidero stood in the dock as 14th witness where he asked the court to nullify the election of Wanga on grounds that the process was marred with irregularities and malpractices.
Some of the malpractices he highlighted were intimidation and bribery of voters, chaos and alteration of Forms 37A in favour of Wanga.
The former Governor of Nairobi linked the alleged malpractices to voter apathy, which was witnessed in Homa Bay during the August 9 general poll.
“My honour, the gubernatorial election of Homa Bay was not transparent and should be dismissed. The parties being accused here colluded and subverted the will of the people,” Kidero said.
Kidero’s witnesses Dan Ojijo who was an IEBC presiding officer at Ongeti Primary polling station in Kochia ward, Rangwe constituency, and Rachael Atieno who was an agent at Akala Primary polling station in Kanyamwa Kologi ward, Ndhiwa constituency, also testified against the respondents.
Ojijo claimed that he was coerced by goons to declare Wanga as the winner at gun point. Atieno also argued that ODM used goons to disrupt election process at the polling centre.
She claimed that election was paralyzed at Akala Primary after they realised that a voter was given three extra ballot papers.
There were some discrepancies in polling station diaries.
“Some youths attacked us and disrupted the process before election materials were picked and ferried to tallying centre. Voting exercise never proceeded beyond 3pm and I ran away,” Atieno said.