High Court Makes Final Ruling On Wavinya Ndeti’s Case

A fortnight after filing an appeal against the IEBC’s Dispute Tribunal decision to lock her out of the race, Wavinya Ndeti has been cleared by the Nairobi high court to vie for the Machakos gubernatorial seat.

The high court judge George Odunga made his ruling known on Wednesday, June 21, saying that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission’s (IEBC) Dispute Tribunal had no legal basis to lock the former Kathyani Member of Parliament out of the gubernatorial race.

After Ndeti won the Wiper Party ticket, Wanyumu Member of County Assembly (MCA) Kyalo Peter Kyuli had filed a petition at the IEBC Dispute tribunal alleging that Ndeti belonged to two political parties (Wiper Democratic Movement and Chama Cha Uzalendo (CCU) as against the Electoral Act.

Read Also: IEBC Ousts Machakos NASA Gubernatorial Candidate Ndeti

Following investigations by the IEBC, the Electoral Board boss Wafula Chebukati released a statement barring Wavinya from the race.

“This committee has considered submissions from both parties and has come to the conclusion that the complaint has merit and is therefore allowed,” Chebukati had said.

However, the high court has now slammed the IEBC committee for conducting an inaccurate probing by not looking into the coalition agreement between the Chama Cha Uzalendo and Wiper party.

The court said that her decision was final and that the IEBC had no powers to overturn the high court’s Political Parties Disputes Tribunal ruling on the case.

Wavinya who remained positive and urged her supporters to remain calm even after the IEBC ruling released a statement after the high court’s ruling saying;

IEBC need to be fair, if they could have consulted the Registrar of Political Parties, we could not have reached here. Today it has been seen that Kenya is bigger than Chebukati. All this is now the past I have forgiven IEBC, and I urge them to conduct a free and fair elections in August. I want to thank people of Machakos for standing strong with me.”

Read Also: Ndeti Appeals IEBC Ruling, Vows To Be In Election Polls

Wavinya Ndeti beat Machakos Deputy Governor Bernard Kiala to the party’s ticket. She is considered as the strongest opponent against Machakos incumbent governor Alfred Mutua in the forthcoming August 8 polls.

Many Kenyans have lauded the high court’s decision saying the polls would now be a competitive one.