Blow to Kajiado Governor Ole Lenku as court orders vote recount

In an election petition lodged by Paul Karembu and Judy Naiyeyio seeking to overturn Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku's win, the court has issued far reaching directions.

In a judgement delivered through email to lawyers of both sides, Justice J.N Mulwa ordered scrutiny and recount of all the votes cast in 16 polling stations that had been flagged by the petitioners.

The court further directed a scrutiny of counterfoils of used ballot papers as well as rejected ballot papers to see whether they tally with those on record.

The petitioners had told the court that there was an unexplained variance in the constituency vote tallies and the county tallies for Kajiado South and Kajiado West constituencies.

In his response, Governor Lenku told the court in Kajiado that the petitioners were seeking to engage the court in a fishing expedition to expand the scope of its petition through the call for a fresh count.

The governor’s prayers were not granted, and now the courts want a proper look into the polling station diaries, KIEMS kit logs and the original result declaration Forms 37A in the ballot boxes in respect of the 16 polling stations flagged in the petition.

The court orders further said in part that there shall be a re-tallyng of the results in Forms 37B and 37C for Kajiado West and Kajiado South constituencies that the petitioners say contained variances that were unexplained.

Ole Lenku of ODM was declared winner of the August 9th polls in Kajiado County governorship race beating his rival Katoo ole Metito of UDA party with a difference of 5,875 votes.