Kenta Seeks to Withdraw Petition Challenging Narok Governor Ntutu’s Win

Former Narok North MP Moitalel ole Kenta of ODM has withdrawn an election petition against Governor Patrick Ntutu.

The former legislator gave in to pressure from the Maasai council of elders, clerics and opinion leaders.

The petitioner through his lawyer, Parseen Masikonde, told High Court Presiding Judge Teresia Matheka that he wanted to withdraw the matter before the court.

Justice Matheka gave the two respondents – Mr Ntutu and electoral body IEBC – two days to file their response to the withdrawal request.

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Their response will be known on November 28.

This comes days after ACK Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit said the election petitions were dividing the county as he called on Kenta to drop the case.

Also appealing to the former legislator were Maasai council of elders chairman Kelena Ole Nchoe, Maasai Unity Forum chairman Selela Ole Mwanik and other Maasai opinion leaders.

Governor Ntutu welcomed the move saying that he and Kenta can share ideas on how to develop the area.

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In his petition, Kenta cited “massive irregularities” in the August polls. He claimed he had a “watertight” case against the county boss who had landed the victory with less than 10,000 votes.

Ntutu who vied on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket beat Kenta after garnering 158,100 votes against the latter’s 148,270.

The former lawmaker accused county Returning Officer Sidney Namulungu of ignoring him when his team expressed fears about possible electoral malpractices.

“When we raised concerns that things were not going right, one Dr Namulungu refused to listen to us and instead dared us to move to court. We are now in court,” he said.

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Because of political tension in the county, the results of the governor’s race had to be delayed for two days.

The announcement was moved to the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi for security reasons.