STRANGERS

Mr Amana Mwajirani who was the chief witness in Matuga constituency petition says he spent sleepless nights a few weeks to last General Election.

He was one of the ODM agents who claim there was massive rigging at Matuga.

Justice Mohamed Ibrahim nullified Chirau Mwakwere’s election on grounds of massive irregularity.

A voter, Ayub Mwakesi, filed the petition. Mwakwere and Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) were ordered to pay the cost.

The Standard on Sunday recently traced Mwajirani at Tiwi village in Kwale District. He claims the vote was manipulated in favour of one candidate. He claims before the General Election, there were rumours that Mwakwere would win whether Matuga residents liked or not.

"This raised tension in the area, which made Hassan Mohammed Mwanyoha’s supporters vigilant and apprehensive," says Mwajirani.

Mwanyoha was contesting on an ODM ticket.

Mwajirani claims he trained 228 ODM agents who were deployed in 114 polling stations in the constituency.

　

intimidation

Mwajirani claims ODM and other political parties had agents drawn from the constituency while PNU ferried in strangers from upcountry.

"I saw unusual faces in various polling stations, which made us worried," he claims.

He claims the strangers were posted in Mwanyoha’s strong holds like Tiwi, Waa, and Ngombeni while others were at Kubo, Shimba Hills, Lukore, Majimboni, Kichaka and Mkongani.

Mwajirani claims a senior police officer at the tallying hall kept on threatening Mwanyoha he would be thrown out whenever the aspirant complained.

He says some Form 16A from the polling stations had figures, which did not tally with the Form 16A he had received from ODM agents.

Mwajirani says Mwakwere’s failure to produce Forms 16A from 114 polling stations was proof that something went wrong during the election, which made his election as Matuga MP get nullified.

He says some of the defunct ECK presiding officers played a role in vote rigging. "On several occasions whenever we asked them why the strangers were holding secret talks with some clerks they were very hostile," claims Mwajirani.

He says the presiding officers refused to tell them the serial numbers of the booklets that had been used before others were issued.

"I suspect some clerks plucked the ballot papers, marked them and then stashed them in the ballot boxes," he says.

Mwakwere and Mwanyoha will fight it out again at the ballot on PNU and ODM party tickets. The date for the by-election is, however, yet to be announced.