The Supreme Court has nullified the August 9, 2022 election of Magarini Member of Parliament (MP) Harrison Kombe.
Justices Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndungu and Mohammed Ibrahim on Friday found that Kombe, who ran on an ODM ticket, engaged in ballot stuffing and altering of election results.
The bench said they found no error in the determination of the Court of Appeal that there was non-compliance with the Constitution and the law or that the noted irregularities and illegalities did affect the final result, based on both limbs of Section 83 of the Elections Act.
"For this reason, we find no merit in the appeal. It is hereby dismissed and for the avoidance of doubt, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal, together with the directions on the declaration of the seat of the Member of the National Assembly for Magarini Constituency vacant and the direction to the 2nd respondent to conduct a by-election for Member of the National Assembly for Magarini Constituency in accordance with the law," the judges ruled.
Consequently, the judges ordered that IEBC shall forthwith declare the seat of the Member of the National Assembly for Magarini Constituency vacant and proceed to conduct a by-election in accordance with the law.
Costs capped at Sh2,000,000 was awarded to Kenga Stanley and is to be paid by Kombe.
Kombe defeated Stanley Kenga of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party by only 21 votes.
He got 11,946 votes against Kenga's 11,925.
Michael Kingi of the Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) Party came third with 7,921 votes.
UDA's Kenga filed a petition at the High Court seeking the nullification of Kombe's win over alleged electoral malpractice.
Kombe served for two terms from 2007-2013 and 2013-2017.
According to him, his agents were denied access to Mjanaheri Primary School polling stations.
