Court Orders Re-Tallying And Scrutiny Of 33 Boxes In Petition Challenging Nyaribari Masaba MP Daniel Manduku’s Win

KISII, Kenya, Nov 29 – High Court Judge in Kisii Hedwig Ong’udi yesterday ordered the re-tallying and scrutiny of 33 ballot boxes in an election petition challenging the win of Nyaribari Masaba Member of Parliament Daniel Manduku.

This follows an application which was filed by two petitioners asking the court to allow scrutiny and recount of ballot boxes in this constituency over allegations raised by witnesses during cross-examination.

Former Nyaribari Masaba Member of Parliament Elijah Moindi garnered 4,482 votes while Benard Ondari garnered 5,366 votes, the two filed the petition challenging Manduku’s win who had 16,303 votes.

“The court ruled for re-tallying and scrutiny of 33 ballot boxes as part of our application,” said Nyamweya Mogusu

The petitioners’ lawyer Mr. Nyamweya applied for scrutiny and recount last week where he told the court they what to establish if allegations raised by witnesses during cross-examination were valid.

Mogusu said votes for the entire polling station of Nyamagesa DEB were not recorded in form 35B and an explanation which was given by the IEBC returning officer during cross-examination as an error.

The petitioner also raised the issue of opening some ballot boxes and this was not indicated in the replying affidavit by the IEBC returning officer.

In her submissions, the IEBC lawyer asked the court to quash the application on the grounds of insufficient evidence to allow scrutiny or recount.

Manduku’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Okongo Omogeni told the court, the application is baseless.

Omogeni said that the scrutiny or recount was not captured in the petition and the source of scrutiny is not known.

Omwanza Ombati who is also appearing on behalf of Manduku, told the court it is important to consider at what point the application for scrutiny is arrived at. “The application has been made at the tail end of the proceedings,” he said.

He argued that scrutiny is a tiresome exercise and asked the petitioners to specify the polling stations to be scrutinized.