NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 11 – The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua’s 2013 election victory.
Judges of the Supreme Court in their ruling said the application by Wavinya Ndeti was not within their jurisdiction.
They explained that the case was rejected by the High Court because it was filed out of time.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) lawyer Kimani Muhoro later told Capital FM News that the respondents including Mutua had objected to the application at the Supreme Court.
He said the Appeals Court had also rejected the application as it was untimely hence the Supreme Court couldn’t reverse its findings on the basis of wrong timing.
“The respondents (Mutua and IEBC) already did a preliminary objection stating that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction stating that the matter had been found not to have been filed in time in a lower court and the Supreme Court has upheld that preliminary objection,” he explained.
The Supreme Court ordered Ndeti, who is the petitioner in the case against IEBC and Mutua to bear all costs.
She first moved to the High Court which threw out her case in September 2013.
Justice David Majanja in his ruling said evidence adduced by the petitioner did not prove the election was fraudulent.
Wavinya in her application had alleged that Mutua was not democratically elected explaining that there were massive electoral irregularities during the voting process that saw Mutua announced as the winner of the Machakos gubernatorial seat.
She then lodged an appeal challenging the High Court’s decision.
However, the Appeal’s Chamber in April 2014 refused to hear the petition explaining that ‘time was of essence in an election petition’ and that Wavinya filed her application out of time.
Justices Erastus Githinji, Roselyn Nambuye and Kathurima M’inoti in rejecting her application said the former Kathiani MP filed it 67 days after the High Court’s ruling instead of the 30 days period allowed to make such an appeal.
