Embu Governor Martin Wambora survives election petition

The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision that nullified Embu Governor Martin Wambora’s 2017 election.

The Appellate Court ruled that the learned judge erred in Law by nullifying the election of Wambora.

“He dealt with issues that had not been raised before him,” Justice Fatuma Sichale said in her ruling on Friday.

She further noted that the minor irregularities noted during scrutiny did not warrant the earlier decision.

According to Lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi, who represented Wambora, there was no basis to invalidate the election.

“We are glad that the Court of Appeal corrected the earlier ruling. The margin was small but there was no doubt that Governor Wambora won by getting the highest number of votes,” the lawyer told Citizen Digital.

The High Court had nullified the election of Wambora on February 22 after a successful petition filed by former Senator Lenny Kivuti.

Wambora appealed the ruling on March 20 and sought orders from the second highest court to strike off the petition.

In the High Court ruling, Justice William Musyoka had said the results of the candidates were exaggerated thus his order for the recount.

“There is no doubt that the errors affected the final outcome of the election. I have come to the conclusion that there were irregularities and errors during the counting and tallying of votes.

“The results cannot be said to be credible, verifiable and reflecting the will of the people of Embu,” ruled Justice Musyoka.

The court also ordered a recount, scrutiny and examination of the votes on January 18, 2018 to verify the authenticity of the results declared by the IEBC after the August 8 General Elections.