The High Court on Friday, July 1, made a ruling on Safina Party presidential candidate Jimi Wanjigi’s petition to compel IEBC to have his name on the presidential ballot.
In the ruling, Justice Jairus Ngaah dismissed Wanjigi’’s petition, saying it lacked merit and he was not convinced to rule in favour of the businessman.
“In the ultimate, I am not satisfied that a case has been made out to persuade me to exercise my discretion in favour of the applicant and grant any orders sought,” he ruled.
The IEBC had earlier refused to clear Wanjigi to run for the top seat over a lack of a university degree, which is one of the requirements for one to vie for the presidency.
However, through his lawyer Willis Otieno, Wanjigi argued that the rejection by IEBC to clear him was a breach of the commission’s own precedence.
On Thursday, the lawyer said that the court had heard that the Commission of University education had cleared Wanjigi and, therefore, IEBC had no authority to bar him.
“The court heard that CUE had cleared our party leader H.E Jimi Wanjigi and therefore IEBC had no authority to decide otherwise. Also, we had met the required signatures requirements but IEBC never gave us a chance to tell our side of the story,” he stated.
IEBC cleared Deputy President William Ruto, Azimio’s Raila Odinga, George Wajackoyah of the Roots Party and Agano Party’s David Mwaure to run for the presidency.
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