Supreme Court Upholds Election of Embakasi East MP Babu Owino

The Supreme Court has on Friday ruled that Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino was validly elected as the Member of Parliament for Embakasi East Constituency.

While upholding the election of Babu, the Supreme Court says it has not found any reason to reverse Court of Appeal's decision that declared the election as valid.

The apex court has ruled that the Appellate Court didn't err in evaluating the evidence presented by the petitioner, Francis Mureithi.

In March last year, High Court's Justice Joseph Sergon nullified Babu's election on grounds of malpractices and directed that a by-election is held in accordance to the law.

However, Owino filed an appeal at the Appeals Court arguing that the lower court invalidated the election without sufficient evidence.

He stated that the High Court judge “ignored the relevant and binding legal standards for the evaluation of evidence in election petitions and in so doing ascribed excessive weight to irrelevant and weak evidence." He  also said Justice Sergon quashed the election on the basis of “trivial arithmetic errors.”

In a ruling on June 2018, the Appeals Court overturned the decision of the High Court and upheld the election of Owino. 

Justice Mohammed Warsame ruled that the petitioner didn't prove his allegations that Babu put the Returning Officer under pressure in order to declare him the winner of the election.

“We can’t understand how Babu Owino intimidated the RO and how pressure affected the results,” ruled Justice Warsame.

Mureithi, who run for the seat on a Jubilee Party ticket, was dissatisfied with the Appellate Court's ruling, prompting him to move to the Supreme Court.