Wajir Governor Mohamed Abdi can smile all the way to his office.

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The Supreme Court on Friday overturned both the High Court and Court of Appeal decisions to nullify his win.

Four of the Supreme Court judges ruled that the High Court and Court of appeal erroneously assumed they had jurisdiction to hear the case on whether the governor had a university degree, which is a requirement for a gubernatorial candidate.

Chief Justice David Maraga and Isaac Lenaola however gave dissenting judgements holding that the governor’s degree was questionable.

Abdi defended himself saying he has two degrees – one in Business Administration and a Post-graduate degree in International Relations.

He claimed to have graduated from University of Kampala.However, Abdi failed to appear in court to rebut the petitioner’s claims. “Abdi was not validly elected to the position of Governor and his election is hereby declared null and void,” Judge Mabeya had ruled.Governor Abdi then moved to the Court of Appeal.

Even there, a contested graduation list killed his case.The Appellate court upheld the High Court’s decision to annul the governor’s election after he failed to appear before High Court judge Alfred Mabeya to defend the validity of his academic certificates.

Three Appellate judges Philip Waki, Asike Makhandia and Patrick Kiage ruled that Abdi’s failure to appear before Justice Mabeya to give his evidence made his opponents’ case stronger.

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His rivals testified in court even after filing their affidavits querying the authenticity of his academic papers.

According to the judges, he alone could have explained which high schools he attended and the grades he attained.“Only he could say what his student number was, who his tutors and lecturers were, what grades he attained and when he graduated. Only he could explain the strange absence of his name from the graduation list for the day the degree certificate he produced related to,” reads the judgment.

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