Anxiety has gripped the Uasin Gishu county assembly after the High Court upheld a decision to revoke the nomination of 11 MCAs by UDA after last year’s general election.
The 11 ward representatives will now lose their seats unless they move to the Court of Appeal to challenge the Friday decision by High Court Judge Stephen Riech.
The affected MCAs were dealt a big blow on March 14 this year when magistrate Dennis Mikoyan nullified their nomination terming it illegal.
The chief magistrate said his decision to reverse the nomination of the UDA reps was based on the fact that the ruling party and the electoral commission relied on a list that had been declared null and void by the Political Parties' Tribunal.
The magistrate faulted the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for gazetting a contested list, even after the Political Parties Tribunal advised the commission not to gazette the contested names.
“A declaration is hereby issued that the party list for UDA Uasin Gishu Member of County Assembly gender top-up and marginalised categories published by IEBC vide Gazette notice No 10712 Vol CXXIV-NO 186 dated September 9, 2022 is illegal and void,” magistrate Mikoyan ruled.
Justice Riech upheld the decision of the lower court, saying the gazetted list of UDA nominated MCAs for Uasin Gishu county assembly was illegal.
The MCAs through a team of lawyers led by Geoffrey Langat had filed an appeal at the High Court against the decision by Mikoyan to revoke their nomination.
Langat told Justice Riech that the magistrate did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter because the aggrieved parties did not exhaust alternative dispute resolution mechanisms before moving to the court.
The lawyer also argued that the same matter had been initially heard by a tribunal which had the same powers as the court.
“The magistrate’s court also made a grave error by failing to consider submissions from the MCAs who were to be directly affected by the court decision. The magistrate also disregarded submissions from the IEBC”, Langat said.
However Justice Riech rejected the arguments by the lawyers and dismissed the appeal filed by the affected MCAs.
The decision by the courts followed a case in which two petitioners, Celestine Mutai and Robert Kiptanui, had filed against the UDA party and the IEBC seeking the revocation of nine nominations.
The two had argued in their petition that despite applying for nomination as MCAs and were qualified, their names were removed from the final list thereby contravening their rights to fair administrative action.
Kiptanui, who has disability, told the court that by omitting his name from the list of nomination the ruling party failed to promote and ensure progressive implementation of the principles that promote the representation of persons with disabilities.
The UDA-controlled Uasin Gishu county assembly has 14 nominated MCAs of whom only one is from the former ruling party, Jubilee.
The nominated MCAs at the assembly include James Wachira, Belinda Tirop, David Waiganjo, Everlyne Tirop, Naomi Serem, Roda Kemboi, Rebecca Jerop, Nancy Kiboi, Hassan Saida, Aidid Sahra, Magrinah Chebet, Chelimo Juliet and Carolyne Cherono.
Only two of the nominated MCAs will survive the decision because their nomination was not challenged in court.
The High court decision sparked celebrations at the court by some of the residents.
