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Kitutu Masaba Petitioner Drops Ballot Box Check

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Published on Monday, 27 June 2011 21:04

A petitioner in the Kitutu Masaba poll case has changed his request to have partial scrutiny of ballot boxes used in the 2007 general election.

Justus Omiti, through his lawyer Otiende Amollo, told Resident judge Justice Milton Makhandia that he had sought the scrutiny to demonstrate irregularities and the state of the boxes when they were delivered to Nyamira, but this had already been established during the testimony of three election officials. "My lord, what we wanted to demonstrate has already been demonstrated by the returning officer, district elections coordinator and one Odenge when they gave their testimonies. That is why we saw it prudent to close the case at this stage," Amollo said.

Omiti has sued area MP Walter Nyambati, returning officer Lawrence Sempele and IIEC, as first, second and third respondents respectively. Giving his last evidence on Tuesday, Sempele told the court that he could not tell who emerged the winner in 2007 Kitutu Masaba parliamentary elections. Sempele said it was difficult to tell who won because the process was marred with anomalies from some polling stations.

On Monday, he had told the court that Nyambati won irrespective of minor discrepancies. During his cross examination by Nyambati's lawyer Osoro Mogikoyo, Sempele said that the MP won the election after garnering 8,150 votes against ODM's Timothy Bosire who got 7,338.

The returning officer said that provisional results showed that Nyambati scored 7,401 against Bosire's 7,020, and after reconciling the figures the MP was still leading so he announced him the winner and gave him a certificate.

But on cross examination by the Amollo, Sempele told Justice Makhandia that incompetence among some presiding officers and their deputies resulted in poor management of the exercise. He said the stuffing of presidential, parliamentary and civic ballot papers in one box was itself an irregularity.

Sempele also agreed that some totals for some candidates were not included in form 17A as supplied to Omiti, but were included in the original forms he presented to court. When asked by Otiende whether he was aware that ODM's Timothy Bosire was awarded 36 votes in Mong'oni polling station instead of 83, Semple said he was aware. 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 scored. When asked to state the number of ballot boxes he delivered to Nyamira district election coordinator's officer and the state they were in, Sempele said he delivered 420 ballot boxes both for presidential, parliamentary and civic but 330 were empty transalting 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. The petition was closed yesterday and will resume on July 11 when the parties will present their submissions.

Justice Mkahandia gave the partiers three weeks to prepare and present their submissions.The case has been dragging in court for three years since it was filed in 2008. Omiti has sued Nyambati, Sempele and IIEC as first, second and thirds respondents respectively