Noah Cheploen
27 October 2008
Nairobi — The Naivasha constituency returning officer in last year's General Election told the High Court that he was forced to stop tallying of votes for some parliamentary candidates for fear of attacks by Mungiki sect members.
Mr Christopher Ajele said what mattered at that moment was his own safety. The court was hearing an election petition filed by former area MP Jayne Kihara.
Pressure
Mrs Kihara is challenging the election of Mr John Mututho as the area MP.
On Monday, the ECK official said he got information that the sect members had been transported to the tallying centre even before the election started and 32 of them had been arrested earlier in the day.
"That is why I yielded to pressure... the supporters stormed my office and I was forced to write that letter. They wanted to lynch me," Mr Ajele told Lady Justice Martha Koome, sitting in Nakuru.
He said rowdy supporters stormed his office on December 29 demanding results which he wrote and signed on a piece of paper. He said that Mrs Kihara forced him to sign a letter and asked him to provide her with some documents.
He said he heeded calls to stop tallying the results of other candidates because doing so would have been a waste of time.
"If people say that that is what should be done, who are you to say no and regulations are made for people?"
Mr Ajele denied accusations by lawyer Waithaka Mwangi, for the petitioner, that he was to blame for the chaos that rocked the tallying because of his words that, "the old man was ahead by 100 votes" which according to him infuriated the crowd.
Candidates
"No. I did not cause the fracas. I only said that because I wanted to prepare them," he said.
He added that he only said those words because he believed that Mr Mututho was the oldest among the 18 parliamentary candidates.
The witness told the court that chaos broke out and that he only returned the following morning - December 29 - and presented Mr Mututho with a certificate declaring him the duly elected MP.
He said that chaos started when Mr Mututho's supporters begun celebrating while those of Mrs Kihara surged towards the table where he stood.
When he returned to the hall later, he found Forms 16A scattered all over the place.
He said he could trace some of the tallying clerks after the chaos broke out.
Hearing continues.
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