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Embattled Machakos County boss Dr Alfred Mutua did not only lose an election petition Friday last week, but the court also asked him to pay the cost of the suit, amounting to millions of shillings, despite his vow to move to the Supreme Court to appeal.
Earlier at the High Court, Dr Mutua was a joyous man after Justice Aggrey Muchelule dismissed the election petition and asked Wavinya Ndeti to pay Sh10 million in costs, but the that has been rolled back to him.
Dr Mutua has now been condemned by the Appellate Court to pay the costs to his competitor Wavinya Ndeti after she successfully appealed the High Court’s decision.
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In the unprecedented decision delivered on Friday at the Court of Appeal in Nairobi, Justices William Ouko, Mohamed Warsame and Gatembu Kairu directed the Wafula Chebukati led Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to hold fresh election. Again, both Dr Mutua and IEBC were slapped with a penalty of Sh2.5 million.
playDr Mutua was ordered to pay Sh10million to Wavinya Ndeti by Court (Courtesy)
“The 3rd respondent shall pay the appellants costs of this appeal, to be taxed, but not to exceed Kshs. 1,000,000.00,” the judges said.
Fresh elections
“We direct IEBC to organise and conduct a fresh gubernatorial election for Machakos County in conformity with the Constitution, the Elections Act and the Regulations,” the judges said after ruling that the validity of the results could not be ascertained.
Meanwhile, Mutua vowed to head to the Supreme Court to appeal the decision.
“The court has not looked at critical issues in the election, the validity of the results, tallying and also many other things.
“We are appealing this decision and in the meantime, I am still the governor of Machakos and I am the fifth president of Kenya, by the will of God. I urge the people of Machakos to remain calm as we work on this,” the governor said.