IEBC: We are ready for by-elections after courts' nullifications

juma chrispinus

March 2, 2018 2:13 PM

Babu Owino lost his seat on Friday after a final court ruling.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Friday announced that it is ready to hold repeat elections for seven constituencies and three counties whose seats fell vacant after various courts nullified the elections.

Speaking in Eldoret on Friday, March 2, 2018 a day after the nullification of Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter's victory, IEBC chairman Mr Wafula Chebukati reiterated that the Commission is preparing to have the fresh elections as soon as possible.

ALSO READ: Babu Owino loses Embakasi East MP seat

Acknowledging minor errors in the highly contested August 8, 2017 elections, Mr Chebukati revealed that so far the Judiciary has dispensed 325 of the 446 election petitions filed after the polls.

“The Court petitions is a test of what we did. In any statistics, there is always a margin of error. We are ready for the by-elections once the court processes are over.

If there are any appeals, the Court of appeal has six months to finalise on them, therefore you may not see any by-elections now or later and if they come we are ready” he said.

Seven members of parliament, among them Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Nandi hills MP Alfred Keter, Marakwet East MP Kangongo Bowen, Gatundu North MP Wanjiku Kibe, Ugenya MP Chris Karan and Lamu West MP Stanley Muthama have had their election nullified.

Equally, three governors including Martin Wambora of Embu County, Cyprian Awiti of Homabay County and Mohammed Abdi of Wajir County have had their victory nullified.

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