The High Court in Embu has upheld the election of Moses Wamuthende, ruling that while irregularities occurred during the vote, they were not serious enough to overturn the final result.
In a detailed judgment delivered on Wednesday, the court dismissed an election petition challenging Wamuthende’s victory, finding that the petitioner had failed to prove the alleged breaches substantially affected the outcome of the poll.
The ruling followed scrutiny of election materials that uncovered several procedural violations, particularly involving assisted voters. The court found that officials failed to properly record details for 1,072 assisted voters in the physical register, contrary to Regulation 72 of the Elections (General) Regulations.
The judge noted that the main evidence confirming the existence of those assisted voters came from Forms 32, documents used to record declarations of secrecy during assisted voting.
The court also identified cases where six individuals assisted multiple voters, despite electoral rules limiting a person to helping only one voter.
Still, the judge concluded there was no clear evidence showing which candidate, if any, benefited from the irregularities.
“The decisive question is not whether each irregularity was individually pleaded, but whether the election taken as a whole complied with the constitutional and statutory standards,” the court said in its ruling.
The judgment stressed that election petitions must meet a high legal threshold before a result can be nullified. The court cited previous decisions by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, including landmark rulings involving Raila Odinga and former Meru Governor Gatirau Peter Munya, which established that scrutiny cannot be used to build a fresh case outside the original petition.
Claims of voter bribery and undue influence were also examined. The court acknowledged evidence suggesting malpractice involving two witnesses, but ruled that the incidents were isolated and did not appear widespread enough to affect the overall result.
Other allegations including interference with voter registers, mishandling of election materials, violence, abuse of state resources and voter disenfranchisement were dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence.
Although the court recognised isolated failures, including a broken chain of custody at one polling station and unlawful alterations to some voter records, it held that the election still largely met constitutional standards on transparency, accountability and verifiability.
The petition was ultimately dismissed after the court found the evidence presented did not meet the standard required to invalidate the election.
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