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Returning officer: I don't know who won Kitutu Masaba, says officer

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Published on Monday, 27 June 2011 21:08

A returning officer yesterday told the High Court in Kisii that he cannot not tell who won the 2007 Kitutu Masaba parliamentary elections.

Lawrence Sempele, who was the last witness in the petition challenging the election of Walter Nyambati as area MP, said it was difficult to tell who won the election the exercise was marred with irregularities.

But on Monday,  Sempele had told the court in that Nyambati emerged the winner in the  elections.He told Judge Milton Makhandia that irrespective of minor anomalies,  the legislator won in the polls.During his cross-examination by Nyambati’s lawyer Osoro Mogikoyo, Sempele said  the MP  garnered 8,150 votes against ODM’s Timothy Bosire's 7,338.

He said that provisional results showed that Nyambati got 7,401 against Bosire’s 7020, adding that after reconciling the figures, the MP was still leading. That is when he announced Nyambati the winner and gave him the certificate.  But on cross-examination by the petitioner Justus Omiti’s lawyer Otiende Amollo, Sempele said incompetence among some presiding officers and their deputies resulted in poor management of the polls.

He said  stuffing of presidential, parliamentary and civic ballot papers in one ballot box was irregular.At the same time Sempele agreed that some total votes for some candidates were not included in form 17A  given to Omiti but were included in his original forms he presented to court.

Sempele said he was aware that ODM’s Timothy Bosire was given 36 votes in Mong’oni polling station instead of 83.The returning officer agreed with Otiende that Bosire was denied votes during the 2007 elections.He also agreed that  Nyambati had been given more votes  at Riamoni Primary School  than he obtained .When asked to state the number of ballot boxes he delivered to Nyamira district election coordinator’s officer and the state they were, the RO said he delivered a total 420 ballot boxes both for presidential, parliamentary and civic but 330 were empty translating to 110 in each category.

He said that majority of the ballot boxes had no seals and that the contents would not be known because some of ballot boxes were strewn at the DEC’s office.

In the petition which closed yesterday until July 11, 2011 when the parties will present their submissions, Omiti has sued Nyambati, Sempele and IIEC as first, second and thirds respondents respectively.Justice Mkahandia gave the partiers three weeks to prepare and present their submissions on the said date.The case has been dragging in court for three years since it was filed in 2008.