The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission on Monday told the court that the Kalonzo-led Wiper party had already submitted the name of Ali Mbogo as the alternative name for the Mombasa gubernatorial seat and Mike Sonko as his Deputy.
This comes amid Sonko’s pending hearing and determination of a petition he filed seeking to overturn the IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee’s decision to bar him from vying for the Mombasa Governor seat.
Wiper’s National Elections Board (NEB) Chair Agatha Solitei in a letter seen by the media disclosed that the decision was arrived at after IEBC’s Dispute Resolution Committee had directed them to issue the names of their candidate within 72 hours.
“Pursuant to a judgment by the DRC panel, requesting us to submit our candidates for the Mombasa gubernatorial elections for August 9, 2022, within 72 hours from the date of the decision, which expires at 10:45 am today, we hereby forward Wiper Democratic Movement gubernatorial candidate for Mombasa County in form Mbogo Ali Menza as governor and Kioko Mike Mbuvi Gideon as Deputy governor,” read the letter.
On Monday morning, three judges, Olga Sewe, Ann Ong’inj, and Stephen Githinji appointed by Chief Justice Martha Koome to hear the case, issued interim orders stopping IEBC from gazetting names of all the six candidates contesting for the Mombasa governor seat following the pending hearing and determination of a suit filed by Sonko.
They also stopped the Wiper party from fielding another candidate for the seat.
Further, the judges stopped IEBC from printing ballot papers until the matter is solved.
However, the IEBC lawyer Edwin Mukele said the commission is now in a dilemma because they had already gazetted all the names of the governor candidates countrywide and by July 1, the names had been sent to the government printer.