The High Court yesterday granted Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege a respite after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) summons for vote-rigging accusations were rejected.
Justice Anthony Mrima ruled that the electoral body does not have powers to issue summons and that the IEBC Code of Conduct does not apply because candidates are yet to be determined.
Chege made the comments at a political rally in which she claimed the 2017 elections were rigged.
She had moved to court to block the IEBC from hearing her case, claiming that it had no jurisdiction because she had not submitted any papers indicating her intention to run or even proclaimed her candidacy.
Chege maintained, through her lawyers James Orengo and Otiende Amollo, that her case before the IEBC was brought in bad faith and hurriedly in order to shame and damage her name.
Her claim was that the IEBC had reached a predetermined decision to prevent her from running for any seat in the 2018 general election.
However, Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria lost the application seeking to bar the IEBC from determining whether the poll-rigging remarks he made at the UDA national delegates conference on March 15 breach the electoral conduct.
Kuria allegedly said he and other Jubilee-inclined MPs “helped President Uhuru Kenyatta steal the vote” in the 2017 polls.
In his subsequent defence, he said his words were misinterpreted, saying he meant ‘imba’ (sing), and not ‘iba kura’ (steal the vote).
On March 26, IEBC summoned the lawmaker over remarks that he and team allegedly helped President Uhuru Kenyatta rig 2017 polls.
Appearing before the agency on March 30, Kuria filed an objection to have the matter handled by IEBC, arguing the High Court had ruled that the electoral board lacks the power to determine whether a person has breached the electoral conduct.
In his words, Kuria, through his lawyer, said the IEBC cannot be the complainant, prosecutor and judge in the same matter.
