Court upholds election of Mandera Governor Ali Roba

The High Court in Nairobi has dismissed an election petition against Mandera Governor Ali Roba citing lack of evidence of electoral malpractice as alleged by the petitioner.

In his ruling, Justice Fred Ochieng’ indicated that the petitioner, Hassan Noor Hassan, did not provide evidence that the his agents were locked out of polling stations which they were assigned.

According to the judge, transportation of materials was not done by police officers as alleged by the Noor further noting that at no point did the petitioner say that the ballot boxes were delivered to the wrong polling stations.

“I find that the materials in which the transportation was done did not prejudice the petitioner and the petitioner failed to prove his claims that IEBC moved the two polling centers,” read the ruling.

“Petitioner must know that the ballot boxes were retrieved by IEBC and EFP agent signed form 37 A,”

“Any alterations at the tallying center had no impact since results were announced at the polling stations,” ruled the judge.

At the end of his judgment, the court ruled that if there were any irregularities, they did not have any impact on the results.

“The results reflected the will of the people of Mandera County,” he ruled.

In his petition, Noor accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of making flawed decisions making it impossible to determine whether the results announced were the true and proper reflection of the will of the voters in specific polling station.

The court ordered the petitioner to pay cost of suit not exceeding Ksh.5M.