Meru Governor Peter Munya on
Wednesday lost his seat after the
Court of Appeal in Nyeri nullified
his election.
The court said Mr Munya’s election
did not meet the constitutional
threshold
Mr Justice Otieno Odek said errors
discovered during the scrutiny and
recount of votes in seven polling
stations and the evidence of the
county returning officer led to the
conclusion that Mr Munya did not
get the majority vote.
“We set aside the judgement of
the High Court and all
consequential orders made and
declare the election of Meru
governor null and void,” ruled the
judge on behalf of his colleagues,
Mr Justice Alnashir Visram and
Jamila Mohamed.
The court also dismissed an oral
application by Mr Munya to be
given a seven-day stay before he
moves to the Supreme Court.
Mr Munya vowed to go to the
Supreme Court to contest the Court
of Appeal ruling that nullified his
election on Wednesday.
Speaking at Nyamachaki Primary
School in Nyeri after the judgment,
where 65 Meru County Assembly
Members accompanied him in a
show of solidarity, Mr Munya
claimed that the court shifted the
burden of proving the petition to
him.
“The burden of proof should lie
with the person who challenged
the election, not the one who was
declared the winner,” he said
adding, he was perplexed by the
ruling.
Mr Munya becomes the second
governor to lose his seat through
an election petition. Last year,
Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga was
kicked out by the Kisumu High
Court but bounced back in a by-
election. (READ: Rasanga wins,
Kalembe loses )
FAILED TO ANALYSE EVIDENCE
On Wednesday, the appellate court
noted that Meru High Court judge
James Makau heavily relied on Mr
Munya’s petition in making his
judgement.
The court noted that Mr Justice
Makau failed to analyse the
evidence and used similar
phraseologies and numbers to Mr
Munya’s.
“In this era of information
technology, cut and paste cannot
be a way of evaluating evidence.
The coincidences are too glaring
and the judge did not
independently analyse the
evidence,” Mr Justice Odek ruled.
He added that the High Court
failed to draw from the evidence
of the county returning officer who
had exposed some irregularities
during the election.
Mr Dickson Mwenda had
challenged Mr Munya’s election on
36 grounds, claiming that the
elections were marred by
malpractices. He said some agents
did not sign forms 35 and there
were alterations in some, which
were not countersigned by agents.
“The electoral commission had said
the errors were human caused by
fatigue, but human errors cannot
be a plausible excuse for all the
irregularities exposed,” ruled the
judge.
The court noted that the High
Court ordered scrutiny and recount
of votes in seven out of 953 polling
stations and that the differences
that emerged could have altered
the results.
The appellant had said there were
irregularities in 82 polling stations
and accused the judge of bias in
ordering scrutiny of only seven
stations.
Mr Justice Odek noted that there
was a margin of 3,436 votes
between Mr Munya and his closest
rival and that there were
irregularities of 360 votes in the
seven polling stations.
The court also found fault with the
High Court in denying the
appellant a chance to cross-
examine the electoral commission
and the Meru returning officer
Fredrick Njeru on the contents of
defective Forms 35 and 36.
Mr Munya was declared winner
after winning 184,273 votes against
Dr Mwiria’s 180,837 in the March
4, 2013 election.
