Petitioner wants court to declare him MP

By Evelyn Kwamboka
An election petitioner wants the court to declare him Kirinyaga Central MP, following his successful petition.
Mr Daniel Karaba won the petition that saw Mr Ngata Kariuki lose his seat and now wants the High Court in Nairobi to declare him MP.
And should the court rule in his favour, next month’s by-election will have to be called off.
On Tuesday, his advocate CN Kihara told the Constitutional Court it has powers to give such a declaration.
Justice Daniel Musinga ordered parties in the case to file and serve their documents, and the case be mentioned on Friday.
The court was told the judgement delivered by Justice Mohammed Warsame dealt with most issues in the constitutional reference case.
In his judgement, Justice Warsame said Kariuki was illegally given a flag and an emblem, which he said must be returned to the people of Kirinyaga Central. "He was holding the estate in contravention of the law. The shareholders did not decree him to be given a dividend. He was an entity that did not deserve to be in Parliament on behalf of the electorate of Kirinyaga Central," the judge ruled.
The returning officer had told the Kriegler Commission he announced a wrong person as the parliamentary winner.
The court relied on copies of Forms 16A and 17A brought by the African Union through the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) as evidence. The documents were verified at the AU offices after the court was informed all original electoral materials could not be traced.