Jubilee’s Francis Mureithi says he will challenge Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino’s election at the Supreme Court.
This comes after the Appeals Court sitting in Nairobi on Friday overturned a ruling by the High Court that nullified Owino’s victory in March.
A three-judge bench comprising of Justices Mohammed Warsame, Daniel Musinga and Kathurima M’Inoti reversed High Court judge Joseph Sergon’s March 2nd decision nullifying the Orange Democratic Movement’s MPs win during August 8th, 2017 elections.
While nullifying the election, Justice Sergon cited massive electoral malpractices and that the Constituency’s Returning Officer was under pressure from Babu to declare him the winner.
However, in a ruling read by Justice Mohammed Warsame, Appeals Court dismissed the High Court decision, ruling that Babu was validly elected.
“We can’t understand how Babu Owino intimidated the RO and how pressure affected the results,” ruled Justice Warsame.
“Babu Owino was validly elected,” he said.
Owino filed a notice of appeal on March 7th, noting he was dissatisfied with the ruling of Justice Sergon as he erred in law in invalidating the election without sufficient evidence.
“I urge my opponents to stand up, dust themselves and join me in serving the people. There is a time to lead and a time to be led. This is their time to be led and I am very willing to work with the to ensure we better the lives of our people,” Babu said outside the court after the ruling on Friday.
However, Mureithi has indicated he will be moving to the Supreme Court to appeal the Appellate Court’s ruling, arguing that the judges contradicted themselves.
“I respect the court’s decision but fully disagree with the conclusion of the judges. They have contradicted themselves with this verdict because they also did not review some video evidence they said the High Court had overlooked. I will go to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision,” said Mureithi.
