Petitioner in Lagdera polls granted application for scrutiny of Kiems kit in the 8 contested polling stations
An election court trying the Lagdera Constituency petition has allowed an amendment to include the The Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits in the poll materials slated for scrutiny in the contested polling stations.
In an order dispensed on Monday, Justice Cherere directed IEBC to avail all election materials including the Kiems kit and polling station diaries for 8 polling stations. The affected polling stations are Afweny Centre 1, Afweny Centre 2, Afweny Primary School, Bullo Centre, Benane Primary School 1, Benane Primary School 2, Benane Secondary School 1 and Benane Secondary School 2.
Polling Station Diaries contain vital information of all activities on the polling day and provides an accurate source of comparison with what is contained in the ballot boxes.
It also captures the serial numbers of all the seals used to secure the ballot boxes, the serial number of the first and last ballots cast, the time of opening and closing of the Polling Station, incident reports, identity of political party agents present at opening and closing of the polling stations.
“The exercise of inspection, scrutiny and recount shall be carried out at the IEBC Warehouse at Industrial Area Nairobi on 08th February, 2022,” the ruling seen by Kulan Post said in part. The scrutiny of the Kiems Kits, the ruling states, will be confined to “read only.”
The exercise is slated for Wednesday and “will be carried out by the Deputy Registrar, Milimani Constitutional and Human Rights Division, Tessy Marienga or any other Deputy Registrar as may be assigned by the Registrar be the High Court and
communicated to the parties’ advocates today (Monday,” the ruling further said.
Abdikadir Hussein who was declared winner while contesting on an ODM party garnering 5,939 votes beating three opponents.
They include Abdiqani Zeitun who got 4,863 votes and incumbent Mohamed Hire of Kanu who was third with 3,277 votes.
In Northeastern, clan plays a major role in election and mostly candidates who come from clans with numerical strength always win seats.
The predominant Awlihan clan in Lagdera has Rer Ali, Rer Afuwah, Rer Kassim and the Afgab sub clans.
Abdikadir and Hire come from the Rer Ali sub clan but from different sub sections.
In terms of clan matrix, the MP-elect comes from the minority sub section.
Lagdera Constituency is one of six electoral constituency in Garissa County. The constituency was established for the 1988 elections.
The constituency has ten wards, all electing members of the county assembly for Garissa County.