Court halt IEBC’s decision to endorse Wavinya, CUE to review her credentials
A Machakos court has halted the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) decision to endorse Wavinya Ndeti for the Machakos governor seat in order to wait for the outcome of a judicial review application.
The Commission for University Educations (CUE) was further instructed by the Deputy Registrar of the Machakos High Court to investigate the legitimacy of a degree certificate Ndeti is said to have earned from a British university.
The temporary orders were given out today in response to a request from two Machakos voters who contested Ndeti’s academic credentials.
The pair, Gideon Ngewa and Kisilu Mutisya, had brought a comparable claim before the IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee, which had dismissed their lawsuit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
The two voters asked the IEBC in their application to remove Ndeti’s name from the list of approved candidates for the Machakos governor contest in the August 9 General Election.
The filing of a substantive lawsuit to request final orders was made possible by the award of the reliefs requested by the two petitioners.
Attorneys Eunice Lumala and Ochieng Oginga for Wiper’s governor candidate informed the IEBC Disputes Resolution Committee, which is presided over by Commissioner Boya Molu, on June 14 that their client has a degree from an accredited university that CUE has approved.
To ascertain whether the education certificates Johnson Sakaja and Ndeti submitted to the IEBC were authentic, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation had earlier launched investigations.
Noordin Haji, director of public prosecutions, gave the police the go-ahead to work swiftly and find the truth.
Both Sakaja and Ndeti, who are vying for the Machakos and Nairobi gubernatorial seats are up against a petition before the IEBC disputes resolution panel that questions their academic credentials.
