It is one year since the August election were held and one Narc-Kenya party leader Martha Karua is still not giving up on the case she filled challenging the current Governor Waiguru’s win for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat,however, the introduction of her new evidence challenging the High Court verdict upholding the Kirinyaga election has been rejected.
Court of Appeal Judges Roselyn Nambuye, Hannah Okwengu and Gatembu Kairu struck out the evidence, saying Ms Karua had not provided sufficient grounds why the evidence should be admitted.
According to the jurges, “The new evidence will be prejudicial to the main appeal if allowed at this stage.”
The new evidence, contained in a flash disk, had been rejected by the High Court, but Ms Karua felt it was important in the appeal.
The request to include it was opposed by Ms Waiguru, and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, saying it might result in the case taking a totally new angle.
The hearing of the appeal was earlier temporarily delayed after two judges of the Court of Appeal — Fatuma Sichale and Sankale ole Kantai — withdrew, citing their close relations with Ms Karua.
The judges said their presence in the hearing would create a perception of bias.
Ms Karua lost the election to Ms Waiguru during the August 8, 2017 elections but challenged the outcome. This is the second time she is filing an appeal.
Her case was first dismissed early this year but the Court of Appeal overturned the decision and ordered the petition to be heard afresh.
The appeal will now be heard on October 1.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has accused Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua of basing her rigging claims on speculation.
Through lawyers Paul Nyamodi and Andrew Muchiri, Governor Waiguru said Ms Karua’s grounds in the petition are speculations that cannot be proved in court.
The lawyers tasked Ms Karua before a Kerugoya court to explain why she had not attached election forms 37As and 37Bs in the petition since she had claimed a section of them were forged.
They said Ms Karua had failed to identify polling stations where she claimed there was forgery of the statutory election forms.
They also disputed claims that Governor Waiguru’s votes were inflated by 48,000, saying Ms Karua had not provided details of the polling stations where the inflation was done.
During cross examination, Mr Nyamodi questioned Ms Karua on claims that her agents were barred from polling stations.
According to Ms Karua her poll agents were blocked from about 200 polling stations and therefore they could not tell whether there was ballot stuffing at the start of the election.
Mr Nyamondi said Ms Karua had failed to provide particulars of the agents who were affected by the alleged malpractice.
The court heard that the agents allegedly excluded from the election exercise by the presiding officers had not filed their affidavits to support the claims.
The lawyers told court that Ms Karua got reports of exclusion of her agents from third parties and she did not witness the incidents, which she admitted.