Kibra by-election: ODM now sues IEBC
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has petitioned the High Court seeking orders compelling the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to provide the complete Kibra Constituency voter register.
The party, through lawyer Jackson Awele, further wants the court to order the electorate commission to publish the Kibra Constituency voters’ register containing the names, national ID and passport numbers, telephone numbers and their respective polling stations and centers in all polling stations and in the public online portal.
"An order of mandamus compelling the respondent( IEBC) to supply voters in Kibra Constituency and the public at large with the voters’ register containing all the information prescribed in Form A of the Schedule to the Elections (Registration of Voters)Regulations 2012 in all polling stations and in the public online portal," says ODM.
ODM moved to court claiming that from the incomplete register of voters, they have been able to sample out names of persons who though eligible and previously registered to vote are missing from the register under unclear circumstances.
They also argue that they have received complaints by some voters including Rosemary Nandiri Otieka and Bernard Atsiaya Ibagore who claim their names are not in the register two days to the by-election scheduled for November 7.
Atsiaya, in his affidavit filed in court, says that since Kibra Constituency seat was declared vacant, he is yet to see the said register in his polling station and all his inquiries for the same at the commission’s offices have borne no fruit.
“My name is missing from the purported register of voters by IEBC. I wish to confirm that I have never applied to be transferred as a voter and neither did I receive any notification of changes to my registration details as required by regulation 10 of the Elections (Registration of voters) Regulations 2012,” he says
Lawyer awele says unless their case is heard and determined before Wednesday November 6, 2019, the petition will be rendered nugatory and the Constitutional rights of the constituents of Kibra constituency grossly violated.
In a supporting affidavit by the party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, he says that the IEBC has not provided any legitimate or reasonable justification in law why it cannot provide the complete register.
Sifuna adds that it will be impossible in the circumstances to verify the eligibility of the people who will be voting in Kibra on November 7, 2019 and in particular whether they are in fact registered in only one registration center and whether they are citizens of Kenya entitled to vote among others.
The by-election was occasioned by the death of Ken Okoth, who succumbed to cancer.
According to IEBC, 118,658 registered voters are expected to vote one of the 24 candidates to be the next Kibra MP.
