Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho retains seat

 

Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho celebrates with his supporters outside Mombasa Law Courts September 27, 2013after the High Court ruled that he was validly elected. LABAN WALLOGA  

In Summary

• Justice Fred Ochieng rules that Mr Joho was validly elected.
• Suleiman Shahbal's petition dismissed.

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has retained his seat after the High Court in Mombasa dismissed a petition challenging his election.

Justice Fred Ochieng ruled that Mr Joho was validly elected. The judge said the March 4 poll was credible, free and fair.

The judge said that the petitioner Suleiman Shahbal failed to satisfy the court that there were irregularities and malpractices during the elections.

“There is no basis in law that the elections were a nullity. I therefore find that the petition lacks merit and that Mr Joho was validly elected as Mombasa governor,” the judge ruled Friday.

In his petition filed against Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the county returning officer Mwadime Mwashigadi, Mr Joho and his deputy Hazel Ogunde, the petitioner claimed that the electoral process was marred with severe intimidation, violence and illegalities.

He said that IEBC abdicated its duty in conducting peaceful elections, saying that it manipulated the exercise in favour of Mr Joho due to the failure of electronic voting system.

Partiality, favouritism and inaction by the IEBC was also witnessed, where Mr Shahbal claimed that the presiding officers and other officers working under the commission acted in a cavalier manner in the face of electoral malpractices which eventually undermined the integrity of the voting exercise.

SUFFICIENT PROOF

But Mr Justice Ochieng’ ruled that the petitioner failed to provide sufficient proof against his claims of violence, bribery and other alleged malpractices.

“IEBC is not under any obligation to prove that the election was unconstitutional. It was important for the petitioner to prove these allegations and that they affected the elections. Without doing so, the petition must fail,” he said.

Mr Joho who contested on an ODM ticket garnered 132,583 against Wiper’s Shahbal who got 94,905 votes.

However, after a scrutiny the figures changed with Mr Joho gangrening 132,507 votes while Mr Shahbal got 94,918 votes.

The variance in the results announced and those after a scrutiny was equivalent to 0.125 per cent which was insignificant to affect the results.

“Results of the scrutiny disapprove petitioner’s assertion that of inaccurate tallying and ballot stuffing,” the judge said.

Justice Ochieng’ ordered that a certificate be issued to IEBC to confirm the validity of the elections and directed the petitioner pay costs which should not exceed Sh3 million.