Supreme Court rejects case challenging Uhuru victory
One of the election petitions challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta’s October 26 win has been rejected.
The petition by George Bush and John Chengo, former university student leaders, was rejected by the Supreme Court Deputy registrar Daniel ole Keiwua.
The two men, describing themselves as paupers, wanted the court to allow them file a petition challenging President Kenyatta’s win without paying the mandatory court fees, which amounts to about Sh1.5 million.
Sh1 million is meant for security for payment of costs, while the filing of the court documents can run up to Sh500,000, depending on the volume of the documents.
PAUPER’S BRIEF
The two former Moi University student leaders filed a pauper’s brief which allows a poor person to move to court without paying court fees.
In their court documents, Bush and Chengo claimed that they lived in “mud-thatched house without windows” in Huruma estate.
They said getting a meal, leave alone three meals a day, is a privilege. They attached their M-Pesa transactions as proof of the penury.
Order 33, rule 16(1) of the civil procedure act states “If any defendant alleges that he is unable to pay court fees the registrar, upon application being made for that purpose, shall inquire into the question of his poverty and if he is satisfied on oath that the allegation of poverty is true, shall record the result of his investigation and a statement of proportion of the fees (if any) which the defendant is able to pay.”
The two argued that the withdrawal of National Super Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga from the repeat poll affected the election.
They also said that the fact that election was not held in more than 25 constituencies affected the outcome.
OTHER PETITIONS
But three other presidential election petitions went through and parties are now expected to serve the respondents in two days.
One of the petitions was filed by former assistant minister Harun Mwau and another by Njonjo Mue and Khelef Khalifa. Both seek the nullification of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win.
A fourth petition, filed by Institute of Democratic Governance seeks to have opposition leaders led by Raila Odinga held liable for violence and damages during the period of fresh presidential election.
The organisation through lawyer Kioko Kilukumi accuses National Super Alliance (Nasa) leaders of engaging in serious electoral malpractices and irregularities during the repeat poll.
They accuse the Nasa leaders of violating the rights of the citizens and they want the court to find them unfit to hold public office under Chapter 6 and Article 137 of the constitution.