Two politicians to appeal ruling on Mandera MCA nominations

Mr Hafid Maalim Ibrahim, a politician from Mandera, at a Nairobi hotel on January 11, 2018. He and another politician said they would appeal against a ruling that upheld the nomination of two MCAs. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The two politicians say they had been promised the positions but their names were omitted from the nomination list.

Two politicians from Mandera County have said they will appeal against a magistrate court’s ruling that upheld party nominations of two MCAs.

Mr Hafid Maalim Ibrahim and Mr Mohamed Ali Bashir filed a petition against the Economic Freedom Party (EFP) for nominating Ms Halima Billow Omar and Mr Issack Dahir.

PETITION

In a consolidated petition before the Mandera Magistrate’s Court, Mr Ibrahim wanted the nomination of Ms Omar nullified while Mr Bashir sought the nullification of Mr Dahir’s nomination.

In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate Peter Areri said the two petitioners did not prove allegations of breach of political party nomination rules.

“The petitioners have also not proved allegations of breach of the law or the Constitution of Kenya, as contained in their petitions, against any of the respondents,” he said.

The court also reported to have found out that both Mr Isaack Dahir and Ms Halima Billow Omar were nominated by EFP as MCAs according to the law and the Constitution.

The magistrate concluded that the consolidated petition was frivolous, vexatious, scandalous and an abuse of the court process.

“This court has no jurisdiction to entertain the petition and the same ought to have been struck out at initio,” said Mr Areri.

PROMISE

Mr Ibrahim told the press in a Nairobi hotel on Thursday that he is dissatisfied with the ruling.

“That ruling in Mandera denies us justice but we shall appeal so that justice can be served,” he said.

Mr Ibrahim, according to court proceedings, was supposed to be nominated by EFP to represent persons with special needs at the Mandera County Assembly.

In the proceedings, he told the court that the clan elders and the EFP leadership, under negotiated democracy plan, asked him to shelve his ambition to run for Rhamu MCA and promised that he would be nominated.

“Both party leaders and clan elders asked me to halt my plan and they promised to have me nominated to position of marginalised/disabled category in Mandera County Assembly,” argued Mr Ibrahim.

“I invested all my money in EFP political activities only to be short-changed by cartels at the party headquarters.”

‘SHORT-CHANGED’

He accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of working with EFP to remove his name from the list of nominees.

“EFP promised to have me nominated as a disabled person but together with IEBC and party cartels put me in the category of gender for which I had not applied for consideration,” said Mr Ibrahim.

He argued that Ms Omar, nominated for the position of a person living with disability, is not disabled as claimed by EFP.

Both petitioners argued that Mr Dahir’s nomination was fraudulent as he had applied for the business category when he was Rhamu MCA.

Mr Mohamed Ali Bashir accused EFP of irregularly and illegally omitting his name, which had been forwarded for the special seats category.

Mr Bashir said he was the youth representative position.

Mr Ibrahim said they would lodge the appeal at the High Court in Garissa next week.