The petition filed by a Kibra voter questioning the actual of retired footballer cum politician McDonald Mariga may have not come by surprise.
Just as expected, IEBC tribunal only limited itself to determination whether or not Mariga is a voter before allowing him on Monday to join the race to succeed Ken Okoth in Kibra.
"It is our finding that the complainant was duly registered as a voter," IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said.
Leina Konchellah had petitioned IEBC to pronounce itself on the age issue, failing which, she says, she may move to the High Court.
In her sworn submission filed with the electoral agency, Ms Konchellah says there could be integrity issues with the documents Mr Mariga submitted to the commission.
“It is curious to note that the complainant presented a national identity card indicating his date of birth as April 1987 and further presented his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education indicating he sat his Form Four examinations in November/December 2002,” says Konchellah.
She continues: “From the above, it means that the complainant sat his Secondary School examinations at the age of 15, which is rather unusual. And if the same is calculated backwards, it means the complainant enrolled for Class One for his primary school education at the age of three.
In a previous interview, his father Noah Wanyama, a retired footballer, said that the former Inter Milan and Harambee Stars midfielder was born in 1981.
While his ID number has serial numbers belonging to people born in 90s, Mariga indicates that he was born in 1987.
Other than his ID, various respectable sports websites have given contradictory information on when the football star was born.
Footballtop.com lists that he was born on April 4, 1984, making him to be 35 years old, while Soccerbase.com indicates his date of birth as April 4, 1987 (32 years).
The contradiction in his year of birth has reportedly informed DCI to investigate his documents. The petition is likely to be a great test for integrity of Mr Mariga.
Sources close to Jubilee party indicate that the National Elections Board questioned him about his ID number. On Monday, former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale dismissed the question of age.
"I am hearing people talking about Mariga's age. The only age we should be talking about is 18 and 21. Mariga's is above that," he said.