Former Kwale gubernatorial aspirant Chirau Ali Mwakwere (L) during the hearing of a petition challenging Governor Salim Mvurya’s win. [Photo/ Maxwell Ngala]
A team of lawyers representing Mwamlole Tchappu Mbwana, a voter who filed a petition challenging the re-election of Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya is heading to the Court of Appeal after the petition was struck out by the Mombasa High Court on Thursday.The team of lawyers led by Tom Ambwere said it is heading to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the grounds in which the petition was thrown out were not convincing.Ambwere said it was unfortunate that High Court Judge Mugure Thande threw out the petition despite knowing that there was no law demanding inclusion of the deputy governor in an election petition.“The deputy governor, in this case, Ms Fatma Achani, need not be enjoined in this petition. Our interest was the gubernatorial seat since it is the only elective post,” said Ambwere.Ambwere together with Anthony Wasuna and Miss Cheri Oyier are representing the petitioner.Paul Munyao, Peter Wanyama, Paul Nyamudi and William Mogaka are representing the first respondent which is the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC, the second respondent who is the Kwale County elections manager Ms Amina Hussein Soud, two other IEBC officials from Kinango and Msambweni sub-counties and the fifth respondent who is Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya.“The other ground in which Mugure Thande used was the exclusion of the declaration of results date, but none is challenging the date as all the IEBC documents and provision have all the dates,” said Ambwere.Ambwere asked Thande to issue the petitioner with all the proceedings of the submissions and the ruling so that the team can proceed with its appeal.“We need to rush since we only have 14 days to file our appeal, so the High Court should not delay us in our process but furnish us with the whole proceedings so we can move on,” he added.However, the team of lawyers representing the respondents opposed the appeal arguing that the case should be closed as the petitioner failed the test of the petition at the preliminary stages.Lawyer Paul Munyao said the election petition was not strong enough to stand a full hearing, thus there was no need for the appeal.Justice Thande ordered the petitioner Mwamlole Tchappu Mbwana to pay Sh2.5 million as cost for the petition.