NAIROBI; KENYA: Judgment on the eligibility of lawyer Kethi Kilonzo to contest the Makueni senatorial seat will be delivered this morning.
Kethi Kilonzo
Judges Richard Mwongo, Weldon Korir and Mumbi Ngugi will today give a ruling that will either endorse or retract the verdict of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC).
The IEBC’s tribunal barred Kethi from vying for the senatorial by-election after finding she was not a validly registered voter.
This week, Kethi’s lawyer James Orengo told the three-judge bench that IEBC Makueni returning officer did not receive any written complaints on Kethi’s eligibility.
He argued that IEBC cleared Kethi for the race and issued her a valid certificate and the tribunal did not therefore have jurisdiction to handle the matter. He told the judges that complaints against Kethi had not been made before the returning officer and that the tribunal did not have powers to handle the matter.
Not impartial
He said the tribunal was not impartial in its decision because the complainants’ arguments were levelled against the electoral body to which members of the tribunal belong.
“The IEBC was a judge in their own cause. The tribunal could not sit in judgment of IEBC’s actions or conduct being a creation of the latter. IEBC was a judge, prosecutor and executioner in the case,’’ said Orengo. The fate of Kethi’s candidature in the senatorial by-election now lies in the hands of the three judges.
Orengo, himself a senator, said that IEBC, which is charged with the country’s electoral process, was unable to explain the circumstances that the registration booklet got lost other than explaining that the matter was being investigated by the police.
By ISAIAH LUCHELI, The Standard