Supreme Court upholds Martin Wambora’s win as Embu Governor

The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Martin Wambora as Embu Governor.

In their ruling, the Judges said that Wambora was validly elected citing lack of merit in the petition by Lenny Kivuti.

“No basis upon which to interfere with the Court of Appeal decision,” read the ruling.

In August 2018, the Court of Appeal had overturned a High Court decision that nullified 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.

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

The High Court had nullified the election of Wambora on February 22,2018 after a successful petition filed by former Senator Lenny Kivuti.

Wambora appealed the ruling on March 20,2018 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.