Court upholds ruling awarding Laikipia Governor Irungu primaries victory

Laikipia gubernatorial aspirant, Nderitu Mureithi, has lost an Appeal to fly Jubilee Party flag in the forthcoming elections to Governor Joshua Irungu on the basis that he is not a Jubilee member hence the Appeal is incompetent.

The High Court before Justice Aggrey Muchelule upheld the preliminary objections by Irungu’s advocate, Paul Amunge, that as at May 8, 2017, Nderitu was already an independent candidate as indicated in the evidence produced in court, a letter from Lucy Ndung’u, the Registrar of Political Parties, and a letter asking Nderitu to submit his symbol as an independent candidate was produced in court.

The Judge, therefore, struck out the Appeal and termed it incompetent to succeed since even if the court was to rule in his favor, he was no longer a Jubilee Party member and the appeal, therefore, served no purpose.

This comes after Mureithi filed an appeal against the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) directed the Jubilee Elections Board to issue Irungu with the nominations certificate.

Elsewhere, the PPDT has nullified the nomination of Ben Oluoch Okelo as the Migori ODM Senatorial candidate.

According to the Tribunal, the declaration of Okelo by ODM as the direct nominee for the Migori Senatorial nominations was unreasonable illegal and unconstitutional hence null and void.

The Tribunal has further restrained ODM from issuing and submitting to IEBC or receiving the Migori Senatorial nomination certificate in favor of Ben Oluoch Okello or to any other person.

The ODM National Elections Board has also been directed to determine the party nominee for Migori Senatorial seat in a manner consistent with its Constitution, Election and Nomination Rules.

The ruling came after a complaint was filed by Odhiambo Gordon Fred Ogolla.

Story by Agnes Oloo and Dzuya Walter