Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o will this morning defend his seat in court following an election appeal filed by his predecessor Jack Ranguma, contesting his election victory in the 2017 polls.
Ranguma moved to the appellate court after the Kisumu High Court threw out his petition where he sought for the nullification of Nyong’o’s election, claiming that it was marred by discrepancies.
Justice David Majanja who ruled on the case stated that the petition lacked merit, and did not meet the minimum threshold for nullification.
Ranguma, however, claimed that the Judge was unfair in his ruling, adding that he never understood the grounds on which he founded his petition, and vowed to appeal the case.
The court slapped Ranguma with Sh5 million fine.
In the trial court, the ex-county chief asserted that the IEBC failed to include votes that he had amassed in five stations and that there was massive vote stuffing.
“The substantial issue that arose, though not pleaded, related to the collation and tally of results from the 5 polling stations which were omitted from Form 37B for Kisumu East Constituency and Form 37C,” stated Justice Majanja.
The stations include Mamboleo market, Kayango market, Akado Polytechnic, Nyalenda A Community Hall (1), and Nyalenda A community Hall (2) which are all in Kisumu east.
Justice Majanja, however, stated that the contested stations didn’t have any significant change to the outcome of the poll.
Other governors set to defend their jobs as the Court of appeal commences the hearings are; Cyprian Awiti (Homa Bay), John Nyagarama (Nyamira), James Ongwae (Kisii) and Okoth Obado (Migori).
The hearings will be presided over by Justice Jamila Mohamed, Hanna Okwengu, Justice Erastus Githinji and a bench of Judges from Nairobi.