A high court has dismissed Narc leader Martha Karua’s petition challenging the election of Kirinyaga governor, Anne Waiguru, on grounds that she had failed to comply with provisions of the Elections Act 2017.

Justice Lucy Gitari, in a two-hour ruling, said that the case was “hopeless, defective and incurable” as the petitioner failed to disclose the full election results and the date such a declaration was made as stipulated in the Elections Act.

“Any petition that fails to state the date of the election, the results of such an election and how declared is fatally defective, hopeless and beyond salvage,” she said.

“This petition faces the consequences of non-compliance and has no basis for going on trial with these kinds of defects while doing so would be an exercise in futility,” Gitari ruled.

The application for dismissal of the petition was made by Governor Waiguru on October 17, 2017 through lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo on grounds of non-compliance.

Sh10 Cost of Suit for the Respondents

The judge also ordered Karua to meet the cost of the suit for the four respondents in her petition, which amounts to 10 million.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, County Returning Officer Samuel Seki, Ms Waiguru and her deputy Peter Ndambiri were the respondents.
Martha Karua said that she would move to the court of appeal the ruling and demanded to be supplied with certified copies of proceedings of the petition.

“I believe the judgment was in error as it failed to appreciate the law and the authority, and that’s why we are filling an appeal tomorrow, the first step to an appeal is a notice of appeal, and that’s what we will be doing,’ Karua said.

She also cited that the legal process was flawed and some parties in the petition seemed to have had prior information on how the ruling would be delivered.

Martha Karua, through lawyer Gitobu Imanyara, filed a petition on 5 November at the Kerugoya High Court arguing Governor Waiguru’s win was not free and fair. Waiguru was declared the winner of the Kirinyaga gubernatorial race after garnering 159,606 votes against Karua’s 120,341.