Court orders Aloise Kinyanjui to pay IEBC, Juja MP Ksh.8M for withdrawing petition

In a ruling seen by Citizen Digital, Kianyanjui who was the petitioner applied to withdraw the petition on December 7, but a Kiambu County resident, Jairus Gichigo applied to be a substitute in the petition.

The application to substitute the petitioner was dismissed with no cost on grounds that the substitute did not meet the threshold and therefore the petition was withdrawn with cost to the respondents.

“In Doing my best, I will cap the costs as follows:- the 1st and 2nd respondents' costs are capped at Ksh 4 million. The 3rd respondent’s costs are capped at Ksh 4 million. The costs will be subject to taxation and the Ksh 500,000 deposited as security to be shared equally amongst the respondents as part of the payable costs,” read the Ruling.

Kinyanjui, who is a brother to Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria had challenged Koimburi's win over electoral malpractices. 

He cited that his agents were blocked from accessing several polling stations and that there were several instances of voter bribery.

The petition where IEBC was the first respondent and Juja’s Returning Officer (RO) as the second respondent had been heard for four weeks and only the cross examination of the RO was remaining. In the four weeks, 30 witnesses were heard.

Accepting the verdict, Koimburi said he was expecting the petition to be dismissed since the allegations that were leveled against him were nothing but ‘hot air’.

The second-time lawmaker welcomed the withdrawal of the petition, calling his opponent to join him as he serves the vast constituency.

"I thank the court for that ruling; all those allegations against me were false. I now welcome Aloise to my team and let us work together and make our Juja better," Koimburi told Citizen Digital.

Koimburi, who contested on a UDA ticket was announced winner with 39, 413 votes, followed closely by Kinyanjui who garnered 30,799 votes. Kinyanjui was running on a Jubilee Party ticket.