The High court yesterday ordered the Wiper Democratic Party to repeat the entire parliamentary nominations for Mwingi central within 72 hours.
Justice Joseph Ong’uto gave the directions after former Law Society of Kenya Chairman Eric Mutua challenged the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal ruling that Wiper party should use internal mechanisms to determine the fate of 19 polling centres whose results Mutua had contested.
“The Political Parties Dispute tribunal’s decision to call for a repeat of the nomination exercise was well founded in law and therefore this court uphelds it and directed the entire parliamentary nominations for Mwingi central instead of 19 polling stations only, ” ruled the Judge.
Mutua lost to a former permanent secretary Gideon Mulyungi’s in the battle for the Mwingi Central Wiper parliamentary ticket.
The lawyer had filed his petition seeking the Kalonzo Musyoka-led party barred from presenting Mulyungi, his opponent in last month primaries, as its candidate to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Through his lawyer Nzamba Kitonga, Mutua told the court that the nomination for the constituency’s ticket was marred by irregularities and wants the nominations done a fresh.
He claimed that the 19 poling stations are Mulyungi strong holds which will give him an automatic win and he wants the entire exercise repeated in all the polling stations.
Mutua said also said that most voters from Nuu and Mui wards did not vote as ballot papers arrived late.
The former LSK boss jointly sued the party and Mulyungi as the first and second respondents.
He also claims that the nomination exercise was disrupted by rowdy youth who destroyed ballot papers and chased away presiding officers claiming they were biased.
Mutua, garnered 3,587 votes against former Housing and Public works Mulyungi’s 11,676 in the last month nominations.
