Saturday, July 6, 2013

Kethi fights claims of voter registration fraud

By ISAIAH LUCHELI
KENYA: Kethi Kilonzo was on Friday accused of presenting a fake voter registration slip and ineligible identity papers to contest the Makueni Countyby-election.
The city lawyer was challenged over several anomalies surrounding her registration as a voter and as a candidate, even as it emerged that she used an expired passport to do so. Parties appearing before an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission dispute committee questioned the authenticity of a document she produced as proof she was registered as a voter. Kethi, 36, is the daughter of the former Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo, whose sudden death on April 27 this year occasioned the by-election.
Also giving fodder to her opponents before the Nominations Dispute Resolution Committee was the revelation that, according to the document, she registered electronically in December 2011, long before the Biometric Voter Registration kits used in the exercise were procured and brought into the country.
Multiple variations in regard to details of registration compounded her case, with lawyers representing two of her opponents and the IEBC capitalising on them to dispute her status as a registered voter. 
The lawyer representing the IEBC Kimani Muhoro questioned Kethi over her claim that she had been registered at a school in Ngong, questioning why the slip indicated her centre as Karen.
Lost ID
Mr Muhoro provided documents to the tribunal that indicated there was no polling centre by the name Karen.
Muhoro also told the committee that, according to the acknowledgement slip, Kethi had registered in 2011 whereas she testified that she registered last year.
When questioned where she had registered as a voter, Kethi told the panel that she could not remember the exact name of the school in Ngong forest.
She told the body she had lost her original national identification card, but had a photocopy of the same, which she used together with her passport for registration.
On cross-examination, she admitted that the passport, whose details were entered in the registration slip, had long expired by the time she sought registration.
She added that she did not vote in the election and admitted that when she went for clearance to contest the seat previously held by her father, her name was missing in the IEBC register.
She said the Returning Officer accepted the acknowledgement slip from theIEBC as a valid document and cleared her.
Earlier Kethi and the Wiper Democratic Party had, through a preliminary objection, attempted to block the hearing of the claim. In the application, Kethi and Wiper sought to have the three complaints against her thrown out on the grounds that the committee had no jurisdiction to handle the matter.
They argued that because anIEBC official had cleared her to contest in the July 22 by-election and issued a validcertificate, the dispute panel had no jurisdiction to handle the matter.
Through Lawyer Tom Kajwang they argued that the complaints against Kethi had not been made before the Returning Officer and, therefore, IEBC and the disputes panel could not entertain it.
“The commission and the committee can only act on an appeal against a complaint that has been launched before a returning officer,” submitted Kajwang. This line of argument was rejected.
Not registered
In her complaint to the committee former MP Agnes Ndetei argued Kethi is not a registered voter as required by election regulations to vie for a seat.
Ms Ndetei submitted Kethi was cleared illegally and her elector’s number 0007331121411256 and acknowledgement slip number 0002058624 did not exist in the voter’s register or biometric data.
Testifying in the suit, Ndetei said she suspected something was not right when she heard that Kethi had been registered in Karen in Langata constituency. Peoples Party of Kenya (PPK) and a voter Rodah Ndumi Maende had also launched the same complaint like Ndetei, questioning Kethi’s eligibility.
PPK official Alex Kuria was taken to task to explain how he had gotten the details of the Kethi identification documents that enabled him establish she was not a registered voter.
During cross-examination, Kuria explained that he had heard from the public that Kethi was not registered, which prompted his curiosity and led to the filing of the suit.
Ndetei divulged to the committee she had visited Kethi and her mother in an attempt to prevail upon her to contest for the senatorial seat as a candidate for The National Alliance (TNA), but she declined.
The requirement under section 13 of the Election Act 2011 that political parties nominate a candidate for an election 45 days prior to an election does not apply to by elections.
They argued that a by-election was not a General Election and cannot be looked at with the same spectacle. Committee sessions continue on Saturday.

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