Makueni County Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior has faulted Justice Weldon Korir over his decision to nullify the election of Gatundu North MP Wanjiru Kibe.
Taking to his official twitter account shortly after Justice Korir decalred the Gatundu North Parliamentary seat vacant, Senator Mutula Junior said that such a decision was wrong at this time.
According to the lawmaker, nullification of an election three years after the exercise was a travesty.
He said the lawmakers had amended election laws to ensure that decisions to nullify an elections are made within six months of the election.
“This is a travesty. We amended the Election laws to ENSURE decisions of this nature are made within six months of the elections,” the Makueni senator tweeted.
Justice Korir on Wednesday October 7, 2020 found that the current Member of Parliament Anne Wanjiku Kibe was not eligible to vie for the seat as she was still a member of the County Assembly (MCA) when she was nominated to vie as an MP under the Jubilee ticket.
Article 99 (2)(d) of the Constitution disqualifies a person from being elected as MP if s/he is an MCA.
In a petition filed by former MP Clement Kung’u Waibara, the court agreed with Waibara’s lawyer Jackson Awele that she ought to have resigned before the nomination date.
In June, the Court of Appeal ordered a fresh hearing of a petition challenging her qualifications to contest for the seat in 2017.
This is after the High Court dismissed the petition for lack of merit, which saw Waibara move to the Court of Appeal on grounds that Kibe’s qualification was not determined in two decisions delivered on the merit of the petition and an election appeal.