Nairobi — The opening of 175 ballot boxes from Makadara constituency to verify their contents began on Wednesday afternoon.

Lady Justice Roselyn Wendoh gave orders on Tuesday to have the ballot boxes opened. The exercise was meant to check the documents in the boxes, not to scrutinise them.

The court order was issued in accordance to Rule 19 of the Elections Petition Act which says that specific documents should be brought to court 48 hours before a petition hearing starts.

Makadara MP Dick Wathika made an application for the documents to be produced in court.

During the inspection of the ballot boxes, the two seals on them were broken.

Former MP, Reuben Ndolo who is challenging Mr Wathika's election, is seeking to establish that seals on more than half of the boxes were not the original ECK seals.