Lamu,KENYA: Lamu Senator Anwar Loitiptip on Thursday suffered a blow after the Court of Appeal in Mombasa nullified his election.
The Court has ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to conduct a fresh election as it overturned the High Court ruling that upheld the Jubilee politician’s win during the August 2017 elections.
His election had been challenged by Wiper Candidate Mr. Hassan Albeity.
The Three-judge bench ruled that Lamu Senatorial election was marred with irregularities which IEBC failed to clear before declaring the winner.
The judges Alvishram Nassir, Martha Koome and Wanjiru Karanja said that there was a breach of the election laws in August elections.
The petition was filed by Hassan Albeity who came second during the August elections with a vote difference of 58 votes.
In the judgment read by Karanja, they said that the high court made a mistake by refusing the scrutiny of elections as requested by the petitioner and further declared Loitiptip winner despite there being irregularities.
“We are satisfied that the appellant adduced enough evidence which should have called for a vote re-count,” Karanja said.
Karanja said there was a need to conduct scrutiny of votes in nine polling stations.
She further said there was no proper identification of voters with accordance to the law.
The court also ruled that some votes in polling stations voters at exceeded the number of registered voters.
The judges directed that IEBC conduct fresh polls.
Meanwhile, the court of appeal has upheld the election of Turkana East Member of Parliament Mohammed Lokiru.
The petition filed by his competitor former MP Nicholas Ngikor has been thrown out by the three-judge bench in Eldoret saying he could not provide enough evidence to prove claims that the election was marred by irregularities.
Lokiru who is also from the rift valley region retains his seat just a day after the Court of Appeal in Eldoret upheld the election of Alfred Keter.
Additional reporting by Hillary Makokha and Kamau Mwangi
