Karua goes for Jubilee, IEBC staff with lawsuit
Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua.
Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua has moved to court seeking permission to institute private prosecution of Jubilee Party agents and officials of the polls agency for electoral offences allegedly committed in Kirinyaga County during the 2017 gubernatorial elections.
Ms Karua wants to sue three agents of the ruling party and three officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
The IEBC officials are Mr Samuel Seki, who was the county returning officer, Ms Angela Wanjiru Maina (presiding officer) and Mr Julius Maingi (Mwea election coordinator). The Jubilee agents are Mr James Muriithi Kangara, Mr David Kariuki Mwaniki and Mr Moses Kiama Muthike.
In the application certified as urgent by the Milimani chief magistrate’s court yesterday, Ms Karua says her decision was prompted by failure by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss George Kinoti to act on her complaints.
The court papers indicate that, on May 9, 2018 the former cabinet minister wrote to the DPP seeking criminal investigation on those found culpable for the theft and loss of her video evidence which showed a Jubilee Party chief campaigner bribing voters at Kangaru Primary School.
Ballot boxes
Through lawyer Gitobu Imanyara, Ms Karua says the DPP had told her he would issue appropriate directions once courts were done with a petition in which she was challenging the election of Governor Anne Waiguru.
Her letter to the DCI dated December 18, 2018 seeking investigations into claims of voter bribery and neglect of official duty by IEBC officials is also yet to be addressed. The lawyer says the officials allowed tampering of sealed gubernatorial ballot boxes.
Mr Imanyara said the delay by the state agencies violates section 22(1) of the Election Offences Act, 2016 which requires DPP to commence the criminal proceedings within a year of the election.
“Unless the six people are prosecuted now, there is a clear likelihood of a failure of public and private justice in this case. This court will take judicial notice that, on November 30, 2020, the East African Court of Justice held that Kenya violated Ms Karua’s right to a fair hearing and access to justice by not hearing her petition on merits,” reads the court documents.
Private prosecution
Mr Imanyara argues that, without a private prosecution, he adds, the injustices against his client will go unpunished. He says the refusal by the DPP to act may embolden other electoral officials to act with impunity and threaten the integrity of future elections and referenda.
In the court papers, the lawyer says the two senior IEBC officials (Samuel Seki and Julis Maingi) neglected their duties by ignoring information on tampering of sealed ballot boxes by Angela Wanjiru Maina, who was the presiding officer at Ciagini.
He says they ignored complaints of voter bribery and canvassing against one James Muriithi. They also failed to report commission of the electoral offences to the IEBC.
He says Ms Wanjiru, Mr Mwaniki and Mr Muthike tampered with ballot boxes at Wanguru Girls School tallying centre.
The application is scheduled to be mentioned on May 3, 2021 to confirm whether the six people together with the IEBC, DPP and DCI, who are listed as interested parties, have filed their responses. The court will later issue directions on hearing.
