NARC Kenya leader Martha Karua has lost a bid to privately prosecute Governor Ann Waiguru’s chief campaigner James Kangara over the 2017 general election.
Karua moved to court seeking to privately prosecute Kangara alongside three IEBC officials: Angela Wanjiru Maina, Julius Maingi and Samuel Seki.
She accused the Director of Public Prosecutions of failing in his mandate to prosecute thus asking the court to allow her to charge them as a private citizen.
In her ruling, magistrate Zainab Abdul said Karua had not shown how the DPP failed to discharge his duties.
The court said for a private citizen to be allowed to prosecute, they must show how the prosecution failed in its constitutional mandate under Article 157.
He further said that the former minister never filed any formal report with the DCI on the alleged electoral offences that she claims were committed by the four.
"I find the application for private prosecution by Karua lacks merit and it's dismissed in totality," she said.
In her application through lawyers led by Gitobu Imanyara and Dudley Ochiel, Karua had claimed there was voter bribery during the Kirinyaga gubernatorial polls in 2017.
They highlighted a few incidences of the malpractices which the police failed to act.
"Without a private prosecution, the injustices against the applicant at the Kirinyaga county gubernatorial elections will go unpunished and unredressed, " Gitobu Imanyara said.
Karua presented evidence exposing individuals of her competitor who had participated in voter bribery at Baricho Secondary school and Kangaru and Sagana primary schools, among other areas in the elections.
She told court that on May 9, 2018, she had written to the DPP seeking criminal investigations of the four, and how they bribed voters at Kanguru Primary School.
However, IEBC lawyer Julius Anyoka and three officials opposed the application, saying that the court had no jurisdictions to hear and determine on the ground that it was no gazetted.
Anyoka said that 12 months had lapsed from the date of the commission of the alleged offences and the determination of the election petition at the High Court.
He further said that the High court had declined to make a finding that there was evidence of the commission of the electoral malpractices, saying Karua did not tender the same before the court to warrant further action.
