11 UDA Members Lose Seats After High Court Ruling
Eleven members of the Uasin Gishu County Assembly have lost their seats after the High Court affirmed the magistrate court’s decision to revoke their nominations.
Friday, Justice Stephen Riech of the High Court concurred with the ruling that UDA did not comply with the law when nominating the eleven MCAs.
Chief Magistrate Mikoyan ruled on March 15 that the nominations were invalid because the ruling party and the Independence Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) relied on a list that had been pronounced null and void by the tribunal for political parties.
As a consequence, the Magistrate ordered the party to de-publicize the 9 September 2022-published list. He argued that the 27-July-drafted original list was legal and questioned why it was not approved.
“A declaration is hereby issued that the party list for UDA Uasin Gishu Member of County Assembly (Gender top up and marginalised) categories published by the IEBC vide Gazette notice No 10712 Vol CXXIV-No 186 dated September 9, 2022, is unlawful, null, and void,” the court ordered.
Together with the political parties’ tribunal, a petitioner opposed the nomination of the eleven, arguing that it excluded persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Chief Magistrate Mikoyan noted that justice must be served since the UDA had submitted a valid list that was published on the IEBC website on July 27, 2022, days before the General Election.
Curiously, another list was published on August 24, 2023, the Court noted. However, the identities of those on the original list were missing.
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At the same hearing before Chief Magistrate Mikoyan, complainants asserted that the IEBC disregarded their concerns and relied solely on the list that has since been revoked.
“Which list did IEBC use to gazette the members who have been sworn into the assembly? The court finds that IEBC and UDA ignored a decision that came from the political parties’ tribunal on which list to use and went ahead and used a list that had been declared null and void,” Mikoyan stated.
In his orders, Chief Magistrate Mikoyan stated that the optimal course of action would be to allow the United Democratic Alliance to carry out the Registrar of Political Parties’ directives in full.
“This means any Member of the County Assembly of Uasin Gishu who was gazette upon nomination based on the list that was published on August 24, 2022, was not validly elected by way of nomination.
“The only valid list is that of July 27, 2022. In conclusion, the county assembly of Uasin Gishu is only properly constituted as per the list that was gazetted on July 27. The gazetted MCAs were not validly elected by way of nomination,” Chief Magistrate Mikoyan stated.
Cleophas Malala, secretary general of the UDA, has not yet stated the revocation of the 11 MCAs.
11 UDA Members Lose Seats After High Court Ruling