A Kisii High Court dismissed an election petition contesting Dorice Donya Aburi's victory as the representative for Kisii County in the general elections held in August.
Judge Stella Mutuku stated in her ruling that the petition did not meet the necessary burden of proof to refute Donya Aburi's victory.
According to Justice Mutuki's review of the petition's problems, including noncompliance and irregularities, the petitioner needed to present proof showing such flaws and disobedience to the court.
Job Nyabuto and Ezekiel Okenye, the two petitioners, said there were suspicions of voter bribery in various polling places throughout the voting process in favour of Dorice. However, he informed the court that he needed more proof because he had heard the claims from his fellow agents.
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In several polling places, according to the petitioners, there was coordinated violence between Chiefs and the police to favour Dorice Donya, but, under cross-examination, the witness omitted to mention the number or names of the Chiefs who were involved in this communal violence.
"The petitioner, who was also a chief agent for Janet, stated in his statement that there were multiple voting practices in several polling places," concluded Mutuku.
The petitioners did not provide evidence to the court to support any of these claims, such as the claim of several practices. In his affidavits, the agent for Janet Ongera failed to provide evidence to this court that he was denied admission to the voting place.
Judge Mutuku stated, "The agent did not provide proof to this court in his affidavit to indicate that the IEBC officials kept him out, notwithstanding his allegation that he had the necessary paperwork to get him to enter the polling place.
In his affidavit, a representative for independent candidate Everline Ogendo claimed that an elderly voter who requested to cast her ballot for Ogendo got help to vote for Dorice Donya.
Another Ongera agent claimed he was left hungry as the Toyota Probox that dropped off lunch drove away while other agents received bread and milk. He sensed something was amiss.
In its answer, the IEBC said they had held free, fair, and credible elections following the Elections Act. All agents received instructions from IEBC on filing claims for irregularities with them, but no claims were filed.
According to Mutuku, "The two petitioners failed to prove to this court that their petition met the threshold of standard of evidence."
The petitioners directed to pay the expenses of the three respondents in the amount of Ksh. 3 million, of which Ksh. 1.5 million would go to Dorice Donya, and the remaining Ksh. 1.5 million will be split between the IEBC and the returning officer.
Compared to Janet Ongera, who received 69,995 votes, and the other twelve candidates running for the job, Donya received 190,277 votes.
Donya said, "I'm delighted I won this lawsuit. I'm ready to put effort into working for my people, as I promised in my manifesto.
