MBUGUA LOSES BID

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 18 - Kamukunji Member of Parliament Simon Mbugua has lost a bid to strike out an election petition filed against him by an Orange Democratic Parliamentary loser Ahmed Ibrahim.

High Court Judge Kalpana Rawal dismissed Mr Mbugua's application and directed the hearing of the main petition proceed next week on Tuesday.

Justice Rawal ruled that Mr Ibrahim was not required to indicate parliamentary results for all the candidates who vied for the Kamukunji parliamentary seat in the last general election in his petition.

The judge observed that since the Returning Officer did not release what the other candidates garnered “it would be unreasonable to require the petitioner to put in his papers what the electoral commission did not disclose.''

Through lawyer Kibe Mungai, Mr Mbugua had argued that the petitioner had no grounds to challenge his election having not disclosed in his petition what every candidate garnered.

Last month Justice Rawal allowed verification of all election documents that were used in the 2007 Kamukunji parliamentary election.

She directed that all ballot boxes be opened and election materials therein verified and confirmed although no scrutiny of ballot papers would be done.

The trial judge issued the directive after she accepted an application by Mr Ibrahim to have all the ballot boxes opened before the hearing of the petition on claims that an inventory produced by the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya showing the contents therein was not satisfactory.

Mr Ibrahim wants the court to confirm whether all election documents were put inside ballot boxes and forwarded to the Returning Officer.

The petitioner alleges that crucial documents among them forms 16A and 17A were not preserved after the elections.

Mr Mbugua failed to convince the court that the move would compromise subsequent proceedings.