Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has maintained that he won the gubernatorial seat fairly and faulted the Court of Appeal for nullifying his election on a technicality.
Arguing before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dr Mutua through lawyer Kioko Kilukumi admitted that the returning officer made a “slight deviation” and used an excel spreadsheet to collate and announce the results.
He urged Chief Justice David Maraga and Justices Mohamed Ibrahim, J.B. Ojwang, Njoki Ndung’u and Isaac Lenaola to overturn the Court of Appeal decision, which nullified Dr Mutua’s win.
On her part, Ms Wavinya Ndeti said no one still knows who won the Machakos gubernatorial seat because the results announced by the returning officer cannot be verified.
Through Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Ms Ndeti said the results announced on August 11, last years were “fake, cooked-up and there was no way that the declaration could be verified”.
He said the fact that the returning officer failed to use the prescribed form undermines the credibility of the results. “The issue of verifiability was settled in the Raila Odinga (2017) case. The system used must be simple, accurate and verifiable. The inability to verify is a weighty constitutional ground,” he said.
Dr Mutua of Maendeleo Chap Chap garnered 249,603 votes against Ms Ndeti’s 209,141 during the August 8 polls.
High Court judge Aggrey Muchelule had dismissed Ms Ndeti’s petition but on appeal, Dr Mutua’s win was nullified as three judges faulted the returning officer of using the wrong form.