Kibwezi West MP Patrick Musimba yesterday lost in the recount of votes cast in the March 4 general election. The High Court ordered for the recount that declared the petitioner, Kalembe Ndile, to have beat Musimba by 118 votes. Justice David Majanja sitting in Machakos said he has a choice of declaring Ndile as the Kibwezi west MP or order for a by-election. The recount conducted last week under the supervision of the Deputy Registrar of the High Court, Jane Makungu, revealed that Kalembe garnered 16,891 votes against Musimba’s 16,773. The recount was completed last Friday and the results forwarded to Majanja on Monday before he ordered the press not to publish them after Musimba filed an application challenging the results.
Under certificate of urgency, Musimba claimed he had lost 409 votes which were indicated in form 35 but were not in three boxes they were supposed to have been in.
Through lawyer Kennedy Wachira, Musimba told the court he lost the votes at Ngelenge station (134) Kiuani primary (140) and Itiani primary (115) and stood to suffer prejudice if the application was not heard and the votes considered.
But Justice Majanja dismissed the application yesterday saying there was little possibility of the votes straying to other boxes as alleged by the MP.
Full Article: allAfrica.com: Kenya: Kalembe Wins Kibwezi Petition Vote Recount (Page 1 of 2).
