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Karua opens new battle front with Kirinyaga Governor after losing in court


Narc-Kenya party leader Martha Karua says she is taking her battle to unseat Kirinyaga Governor Anne Mumbi in Kirinyaga to the Judiciary employer.

While on Tuesday she came to the end of the road for litigation to nullify the (August 2017) election, Karua now says “it is not the end of the road for litigation.”

“There are several other aspects. The JSC (Judicial Service Commission) is one of them. I’m going there and I won’t elaborate on it,” she said on Tuesday night in an interview with Citizen TV.

While she did not elaborate on the case she is taking to the eight-member commission headed by Chief Justice David Maraga, only hinting that some of the judges who handled her petition are among her targets.

“The judge in question knows about it because they are things that happened that ought not to have taken place,” she said without dropping any names.

The judges who handled the case are High Court Judge Lucy Gitari (Kerugoya) and Appellate Justices Stephen Gatembu, Roselyn Nambuye and Hannah Okwengu.

The former presidential candidate cried foul over the ruling issued by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, dismissing her third and final bid to oust Ms Mumbi.

According to Ms Karua, the apex court, like the High Court and the Court of Appeal, denied her justice.

JUSTICE DENIED

“Our legal system decrees that it (Supreme Court) is the highest court. But I don’t have to believe in it,” she said.

“You go to court ready to accept the verdict after you exhaust the justice system, accepting the verdict doesn’t mean believing in it.”

She accused the Supreme Court judges of electing not to consider her case.

In her petition, the former Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister claimed there were cases of bribery in more than 100 polling stations in Kirinyaga during the August 2017 General Election.

“The court never considered the evidence or merits of the case. They simply said they lacked jurisdiction on account of time! Dismissed on a technicality,” she later tweeted.

She also said the Supreme Court struggled to find a technicality in her case and avoided dealing with issues in a calculated move aimed at denying her justice.

“I don’t think the verdict looked into the issues… If they had dealt with the issues, there is no way they would have any other verdict but to award the prayers we had requested,” she claimed.

She claimed there are cartels in courts that facilitate theft of evidence and files from court records to defeat justice. She vowed to challenge the judicial system in the country, saying it has weaknesses.

CABINET POST

“It is the system we chose – rule of law with all its human imperfections!” she tweeted.

At the same time, the Narc-Kenya party leader has dismissed the olive branch extended by Ms Mumbi.

In a response to tweet from one of her followers, the lawyer also divulged that she will not support Ms Mumbi as it would be tantamount to supporting “injustice”.

The Kirinyaga governor had urged her rival to accept the court’s ruling and move on as she waits for 2022 elections.

Similarly, Ms Karua on Wednesday dismissed calls by Jubilee Party leaders in Kirinyaga, who asked President Kenyatta to fulfill his pledge and give her a Cabinet post.

“Maybe I should now disclose that I rejected an offer for cabinet post in 2017 after the elections. To that extent the promise was fulfilled to me but promises to @Narckenya remain unfulfilled.”

The Tuesday ruling came approximately eight months after Ms Karua turned to the apex court following the dismissal of her case by a three-judge bench.

In her appeal, she claimed she was denied a chance to provide strong evidence to prove cases of election irregularities in the Kirinyaga poll.