Embakasi East Member of Parliament Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino. [Photo: The Standard]
Embakasi East constituency could be headed for a by-election in the next few months.This will happen if the High Court rule in a favour of an election petition challenging the victory of the incumbent MP, Babu Owino.Jubilee Party's Francis Mureithi argues that Owino did not file a response to the petition within given deadline.The petitioner told the court on Thursday that Owino's late response to the petition could have meant that he was not challenging it.Mureithi told the court that he notified the IEBC, Babu Owino and the returning officer of the constituency through a notice on newspaper dated September 7.The response to Mureithi’s petition was supposed to be filed within a period of seven days, failure to do so resulting in a fresh election.The MP, however, defended his failure to respond to the petition within the prescribed time frame saying he learnt of the advert announcing the existence of the petition three days later."I looked for the petitioner's lawyers in person to get a copy of the petition and did not get it until September 13," Owino said, asking the judge to allow him file a response out of time.The court will make the final ruling on Wednesday, October 18, 2017.