Karua stranded after evidence against Waiguru goes missing in court

juma chrispinus

May 3, 2018 9:48 AM

The Waiguru petition has taken an interesting turn.

Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua was on Wednesday stranded and blocked by the High Court in Kerugoya from questioning the court’s deputy registrar on the findings of an audit of election materials used in the Kirinyaga governorship election.

High Court Justice Lucy Gitari, whom Karua wanted out of the petition, said the registrar, Wambu Otieno, is an independent officer who cannot be subjected to clarifications and conversations.

Ms Karua wanted to be allowed to cross-examine the registrar on why the report was incomplete, which she said was prejudicial to her.

She earlier complained to the court that a flash disk containing part of her evidence had gone missing, and her efforts to trace the data were futile.

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She said the disk had videos of Jubilee Party and Governor Waiguru’s agents bribing voters.

“I was accompanied by my lawyer, Gitobu Imanyara, on September 5, 2017, to file the petition. I witnessed the handing over of the petition, and sealed envelopes containing the flash disk and a compact disk. We also asked the court officers to handle them with care,” said Ms Karua.

She added: “The disk has a video of a Jubilee Party official bribing voters at Kangaru School in Mwea, Ciagiini and Wang’uru. Also, a video and photos of Mutithi Primary School headteacher canvassing and bribing voters at the gate. They were filed together with the petition.”

Once a foe to Mrs Karua, Justice Gitari told her (Karua) that if she is disputes the registrar’s report, she could raise her reservations in her submissions.

She was also stopped from referring to documents that are not part of the court records, or part of her evidence, such as the election statutory forms.

“The petitioner cannot rely on documents that are not in her pleadings or affidavits. She cannot rely on documents that are not part of the evidence,” Ms Gitari said.

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