Court upholds MP Shamalla’s nomination by Jubilee Party

A Nairobi High court has upheld the nomination of Jennifer Shamalla to the National Assembly by the Jubilee Party.

Justice Stella Mutuku has declared Shamalla’s nomination as valid and exonerated President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party from blame following her nomination to represent special interest group.

According to the judge no law was violated by the political party in picking the advocate.

As a result, Justice Mutuku threw out  an application by  former Aden Noor Ali contesting her nomination.

While delivering the ruling, Judge Mutuku said “no evidence was adduced  to support the claims by the petitioner. Consequently, the court concludes that the respondent was validly nominated”.

The court also rejected assertions by Noor  that  chairperson of Parliamentary Service Commission disobeyed a directive  by the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal (PPDT) not to gazette Shamalla until matters to do with her nomination are resolved.

Shamala’s lawyer Conrad Maloba and Michael Amalemba had told the court that Shamalla deserved the nomination because she represents a special interest group and that a political party has a sole mandate to choose any person for nomination.

In the case Noor had challenged Shamalla’s nomination by JP to  represent special interests of  the  marginalized groups.
He wanted her  name substituted with his insisting  that he is from the minority Somali while she is from the majority Luhya and represent no known special interest’s.

Noor has suffered double tragedy since the court also ordered him to pay a total of Ksh.2million as costs of the petition.