The ever resounding chorus election losers get from their opponents has always been ‘rush to court! ’
However, in the backdrop of the chorus has always been the Kenyan Judiciary that has never ruled in favor of the petitioner in such suites and the cases end-up being buried by authoritarian regimes and legal complexities.
It is until 1st September 2017 that the Judiciary went against the grain where Justice David Maraga nullified the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in a petition forwarded to the High court by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Most people can remember the 1992 election that is believed to have been won by the late Kenneth Matiba but the cake was snatched away from him by his close contender Daniel Moi. Matiba, who according to the poll agency garnered 1,354,856 votes on a FORD-Asili ticket moved to the trial court the following year (1993) protesting against Moi’s election.
According to the balloting agency, Moi garnered 1,927,645 votes hence emerging the victor. Matiba cited gross violation of the constitution during the electioneering period and also violence.
Ruling on the case, Justice Riaga Omollo dismissed the petition citing that it did not meet merit as it was not signed by the petitioner (Matiba). Before, during and after the elections, Matiba is said to have been seriously ill and therefore gave her wife the authority to sign the petition.
KANU lawyers labored on the point, and this saw Matiba lose in the case. Justice Omollo, then-then President of the apex court, was however dismissed from work in 2012 during a vetting exercise which declared he was unfit for being partisan in his work also showing a discriminatory attitude towards the sick and handicapped (Matiba)“It gratuitously showed grave disrespect for disabled people, castigating the petitioner in an ungenerous and uncalled for manner,” ruled the Judicial Service Commission.
Other Jurists who were also shown the door for unacceptable conduct were Judge Emmanuel Okubasu and Judge Samuel Bosire who was pronounced as unsuitable to hold office for abetting torture of suspects during Coup trial in 1982.
#historynow