IEBC insists Wavinya unfit to run for Machakos top job

The electoral commission has insisted that Wiper’s gubernatorial candidate Wavinya Ndeti should be locked out of the race.

During the hearing of a case in which Ndeti is challenging IEBC’s decision to bar her from vying, the commission said she is not in the Wiper membership list and cannot therefore be allowed to contest on the party ticket.

Through lawyer Paul Nyamodi, IEBC maintained that Ndeti did not resign from the Chama Cha Uzalendo Party as required by law. The electoral body avers that Ndeti became a Wiper member

on April 24, 2017, close to three weeks after the party-hopping deadline.

It further argues that Wavinya was still a member of CCU as of the date of the purported resignation, April 6, 2017.

Mr Nyamodi told Justice George Odunga that although CCU entered into a coalition agreement with Wiper Party on April 24, and the coalition agreement does not meet the threshold of resignation from one party.

Mr Nyamodi submitted that Wavinya is therefore guilty of party hopping and should not be allowed to run.

“She is not eligible to be nominated by any party to contest in any seat in the General Election. The grounds made by Wavinya in this case including that of legitimate expectations have not been proved and for those reasons the application for judicial review should be dismissed with costs,” argued Nyamodi.

The IEBC argument was supported by an affidavit by Ms Salome Oyugi, the Manager Political Parties and Campaign Financing within the Directorate of Legal and Public Affairs department, who says that Wavinya’s name is not in the party register submitted to the electoral body.

“On March 27, 2017, I received from Wiper Democratic Movement-Kenya a cover letter dated March 27, 2017 together with a DVD disc containing the list of the members of the Wiper Democratic Movement Kenya Annexed hereto and marked ‘SO 1’,” she stated.

“I have searched through the said list submitted to the Respondent and I confirm that the name of the Ex-parte Applicant is not on the said list,” added Ms Oyugi.

On May 11, 2017, Justice Odunga ruled that Ndeti is a member of CCU. Further complicating matters is that Wiper’s rules require that one must be a member of the party for at least three months unless this requirement is waived by its National Executive Council.

Ndeti has however refuted IEBC’s claims, saying that IEBC had no jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter filed before the electoral commission committee.

She told the court that the jurisdiction to determine the question of party membership is conferred on the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal.

She urged Justice Odunga to quash the IEBC committee decision that barred her from contesting in the August polls.