KANU secretary general Nick Salat will proceed with an appeal challenging the results of the Bomet Senatorial seat after the Court of Appeal dismissed an objection by his rival Wilfred Lesan.
KANU secretary general Nick Salat
The court ruled that a party should not be deprived of an opportunity to challenge a decision on mere technicalities. Judges William Ouko and Jamila Mohamed threw out an objection by Senator Lesan, who wanted the appeal dismissed because it was filed late.
The Bomet Senator said the appeal is incompetent since the notice of appeal was filed four days late. However, Ouko and Mohamed ruled that striking out the appeal will not resolve the contested issues and Salat will still have the right to re-initiate it at great financial cost and waste the court’s time.
The judges ruled that Bomet residents, who gave Lesan 115,931 votes against Salat’s 98,036, are the major “stakeholders” in the outcome of the March 4 general election and they do not deserve to be exposed to a miscarriage of justice in a dispute between political rivals.
Ouko and Mohamed said the argument by Lesan to strike out the intended appeal “was like killing a housefly with a sledge hammer.” The judges agreed with lawyer Titus Koceyo that Appeal Court rules had been relaxed to disregard stringent legal technicalities to enable them render substantive justice to aggrieved persons.
Lesan, through his lawyers Paul Lillan and William Arusei, said the former MP had deliberately disregarded mandatory requirements governing election petitions and must bear the consequences through the dismissal of the appeal.
But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Patrick Kiage accused Salat of failing to offer any excuses or explanation for the blatant disobedience of statutory requirements regarding the filing and serving of notices of appeal. The judge said Salat should have filed the notice of appeal by August 29 and the default rendered his appeal a nullity, he said.
While challenging the outcome, Salat cited massive irregularities, which he said,were unearthed during the scrutiny of votes. He complained that judge Aggrey Muchelule, who heard the petition, totally disregarded cogent evidence tendered by his witnesses to prove electoral malpractices that marred the voting and counting exercises.
Salat has reiterated that he was denied votes in most of his strongholds that were mysteriously transferred to Lesan. In other instances, the voter turnout far exceeded the number of registered voters.
By CAROLE MAINA, The Star
