Court to rule on Wanjiru case July 30

Bishop Margaret Wanjiru's tenure as Starehe MP will be known on 30th of next month when the High Court will give its final verdict.

The election petition against Wanjiru who is also the housing assistant minister was filed by former area MP Maina Kamanda.

The High Court will me making its sixth judgment on election petition filed since the general election 2007.

Lawyers representing both parties in the suit made their final submission Monday with Kamanda's lawyer claiming the election were rigged in favour of Wanjiru.

According to a vote recount conducted in April this year BishopWanjiru trailed Kamanda by a margin of 14-thousand votes.

The vote recount showed Kamanda leading with 49,308 votes against Wanjiru's 34,871. The scrutiny registered several anomalies ranging from failure by the presiding officers to sign Form 16A.

The exercise began on February 24 with between seven and eight ballot boxes being scrutinized daily.

It was also discovered party agents failed to sign the forms as required by law and no reason was given.

From the outcome of the scrutiny, 35 ballot boxes could not be traced to any polling station.

Kamanda moved to court immediately after the results were announced seeking a redress claiming the whole election was riddled with irregularities.

Juja MP George Thuo was the latest casualty in Parliament to lose a petition after Joel Onyancha (Bomachoge), Omingo Magara (South Mugirango) and Chirau Ali wa Mwakwere (Matuga).

Magara lost his seat to Ford People's Manson Nyamweya who was elected the new Member of Parliament for South Mugirango after garnering 14,099 votes in a by-election held on June 10th.

The fate of former Transport Minister Mwakwere will be known in two weeks time. The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) has set the by-election for July 12th.