Blow to Babu Owino as court orders vote recount

The High Court in Nairobi has ordered a recount and scrutiny of votes in a petition challenging the election of Embakasi East MP Babu Owino.

The court ordered a recount of votes in the entire constituency, a move that puts Babu Owino’s election at stake.

Justice Joseph Sergon made the order in a case in which Babu Owino’s win is being challenged by Francis Mureithi. Sergon said that he was satisfied that Mureithi had given sufficient reasons to warrant a recount.

The judge directed the IEBC to avail within two days Ballot boxes and disputed election forms to the deputy registrar of the high court.

During the hearing of the case in December 2017, the Embakasi East Returning Officer, Nicholas Kipkorir Butuk, told the court that at the final stage of tallying, he was under duress from Babu Owino since he had misplaced Form 35C which he was supposed to fill and declare the winner.

He, however, went ahead to declare Babu the winner without the document saying he was under duress.

“During the final stage of the tallying process, I realised that form 35C which is used to declare the winner, was missing. I had to look for it first but Babu Owino got impatient and went crazy. I was under pressure but I would not have announced different results because he was still the winner from the results we tallied,” Butuk clarified.

Appearing before Justice Joseph Sergon, Butuk also testified that he realised there was a tallying error after declaring Babu Owino winner of the parliamentary election.

He however clarified that the error could not have changed the outcome of the election, adding that it only affected the last four out of the ten candidates who were in the race for the Embakasi East parliamentary seat.

The case will be mentioned on February 26 to asses the scrutiny and recount outcome.