The IEBC has officially gazetted Nairobi Gubernatorial candidate Johnson Sakaja as a Governor candidate.
Despite the fact that a High Court ruling on the inclusion of Nairobi Sakaja’s name on ballot papers is scheduled for Tuesday.
Sakaja and his running mate Njoroge Muchiri have been gazetted as candidates for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, according to the gazette notice.
Sakaja is now among the 16,100 names forwarded by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati for gazettement on June 30, 2022.
Chebukati previously stated that with several active cases involving candidates seeking various elective positions, the printing would be repeated depending on the outcome of the courts.
However, according to IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein, it would cost the commission more money.
“In a case of any alteration, the ballot papers will be printed again. However, as IEBC it is our wish that we wouldnt want that to happen because we are running out of time,” Hussein said.
Sakaja has been embroiled in legal wranglings since a petitioner, Dennis Wahome, asked the court to prevent the electoral commission from printing ballot papers for Nairobi until the case is heard and decided.
Wahome had requested that the court temporarily prevent the commission from including Sakaja’s name on the ballot paper because his degree from Team University in Uganda is not authentic.
He claimed that if the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) printed his name before the case was resolved, his case would be rendered null and void.
However, the High Court declined to temporarily bar the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission from including Sakaja’s name on the ballot for Nairobi’s gubernatorial election on July 1, 2022.
Instead, Justice Anthony Mrima ordered that the case filed by Dennis Wahome be expedited, heard on Monday, and decided on Friday.
However, the case surrounding Sakaja’s governorship took a new turn last week when three more voters filed separate cases seeking his disqualification from the elections.
The petitioners, Timothy Charo Odhiambo, David Gitau, and Antony Macharia Munene, want the court to uphold the Commission for University Education’s (CUE) decision to revoke Sakaja’s degree from Team University in Uganda.
CUE previously stated that the investigation it conducted revealed that Sakaja was never admitted to Team’s University.
The petitioners argued in the new suits that Sakaja is ineligible based on the CUE’s letter to the electoral commission dated June 30, 2022, indicating that the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate lacked a valid degree certificate.
The petitioners have also sued IEBC for failing to disqualify Sakaja from the election in the cases that were consolidated by Justice Anthony Mrima.
They are dissatisfied with the IEBC’s decision to dismiss the CUE’s letter, as well as its reasoning that the only way to compel it to reverse its decision to clear Sakaja was to obtain a court order setting aside the decision of the commission’s Disputes Resolution Committee (DRC).
The IEBC’s Dispute Resolution Committee dismissed a petition challenging his nomination last month, stating that it lacked investigative powers and could only rely on a criminal conviction against Sakaja to declare the degree certificate invalid.
In the meantime, the three petitioners seek temporary orders prohibiting the IEBC from publishing Sakaja’s name as a candidate for Governor of Nairobi in the Kenya Gazette or printing ballots.
They also want the court to issue interim orders suspending the IEBC’s decision to allow Sakaja to run for governor.
The petitions will be heard by Justice Hedwig Ong’undi at the High Court in Milimani on July 12, 2022.
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