Court Upholds Kwale Governor Achani’s August Win

The High Court on Thursday upheld the election of Kwale Governor Fatma Achani.

Mombasa High Court Judge Francis Gikonyo ruled that the county boss was validly elected and that the petitioners did not present evidence proving election malpractice.

During the hearing, the petitioners said that Achani exploited her position as deputy governor at the time to persuade county workers to support her campaign.

The witnesses, however, were unable to name the purported county workers who supported Ms Achani in her campaign. The petitioners attempted to demonstrate electoral violations that favored the governor and as such, they used video clips that were reportedly captured during the campaigns.

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Unidentified county employees were shown in the videos purportedly supporting the Kwale governor, who was at the time serving as Salim Mvurya’s deputy.

Some of the witnesses said that some county employees had participated in campaigns to support Ms Achani’s candidacy, but they were unable to identify them in the recordings.

“I do not know the identity of the person captured in the video mobilizing women. I don’t know most of the county employees,” said a witness.

In the August polls, the governor who was the UDA candidate, garnered 59,674 votes against Prof Hamadi Boga’s 53,972 votes.

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Ms Achani defended her victory, asserting that the claims of electoral fraud are unfounded and that she was legitimately elected.

Through her legal team, she requested that the court dismiss the petition since it did not raise any significant grounds that would have called for the annulment of her victory.

The governor argued that the evidence presented against her was so feeble and fell short of the standard needed to void an election.

“The respondent won the elections fairly, there were no notable irregularities identified. We ask that the petition be dismissed,” she said through her lawyers.

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The petitioners; Dziwe Pala and Suleiman Ali, had asked the court to declare Prof Boga the winner as the declaration of Ms Achani as the victor had subverted the will of the people of Kwale.

They also requested that the court instructs the IEBC to organize and hold fresh elections for Kwale county governor in strict accordance with the Constitution and the Elections Act.