The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) disputes tribunal has cleared Footballer McDonald Mariga to vie for the Kibra by-election.
This is after his candidature was invalidated over missing details in the voters’ roll.
While reading out the verdict, IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati said they had established the footballer is a registered voter and ordered for his application to be processed.
“The complainant is registered as a voter.
“The respondent's decision of 10 September 2019 declining nomination of the complainant on account that he is not registered as a voter is hereby set aside.
“The respondent is hereby ordered to process the complainant’s application for nomination as the Jubilee Party candidate for the Kibra Constituency by-election slated for 7 November 2019.
“Each party shall bear their (legal) costs,” said Chebukati.
Not in the clear yet
However, Mariga’s woes might not be ending soon after yet another bid to bar him from running for MP over alleged inconsistency in his national identification card.
Leina Konchellah petitioned IEBC to pronounce itself on the age issue, failing which, she said, she may move to the High Court.
In her sworn submission filed with the electoral agency, Konchellah says there could be integrity issues with the documents Mariga submitted to the commission.
“It is curious to note that the complainant presented a national identity card indicating his date of birth as April 1987 and further presented his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education indicating he sat his Form Four examinations in November/December 2002.
“From the above, it means that the complainant sat his Secondary School examinations at the age of 15, which is rather unusual. And if the same is calculated backwards, it means the complainant enrolled for Class One for his primary school education at the age of three.
“This can only lead one to conclude that the complainant was either a genius at Primary School level, which brilliance abandoned him at Secondary level for him to get a mean grade of D-(minus), or there are integrity issues as to authenticity of the said documents he presented before the IEBC,” reads the submission.