Distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the fourth estate. I want to thank you for honoring my invitation for this press conference.
On Friday the 3rd of March, 2023 the high court issued its verdict on our petition challenging the election of Ahmed Abdullah as the elected Governor of Wajir County.
Unfortunately, the court upheld the declaration of Mr. Abdullah as the governor by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
However, we are dissatisfied by this decision and want to take this opportunity to announce that we shall be moving to the Court of Appeal to challenge the verdict by the high court.
Our decision to appeal is informed by us believe and backed by material facts that elections were bungled in three constituencies which in the end affected the outcome of last August's election results.
There were unlawful electoral practices and numerous irregularities that were recorded in the three constituencies of Eldas, Wajir West and Wajir East including violence that led to the postponement of voting especially in Eldas by one more day.
In the cases of Wajir East and Eldas, voting was marred by incidents of insecurity that were choreographed for the sole purpose of scaring voters away from polling stations while in Wajir West, the story was about ballot stuffing, vote swapping, failure to use KIEMS kits and delay in result transmissions.
We have already asked our lawyers to prepare for the appeal after the high court granted us the certified copies of its ruling and judgement yesterday.
We firmly believe that this election was not free and fair and did not meet the thresholds as set out in the Constitution of Kenya 2010; a fact we hope the Appellate Court will agree with us.
Ladies and gentlemen, I also want to use this opportunity to clarify some misinformation going round in Wajir that our petition is derailing service delivery.
It's clear that our petition is against individuals and not the county government and thus no one should use this case to deny the people of Wajir services.
Equating the government to two individuals must be seen for what it is; it’s an excuse to divert public resources for personal use through different activities other than those that would have met the needs of the people of Wajir.
In any case, the county has recieved a whooping Sh4 billion in the last six months yet services are not in tandem with such huge disbursement.
The allocation is supposed to cater for water, animal feed for livestock and food for the large human population who have already lost their livelihoods.
The people of Wajir deserve better but instead are subjected to a demoralized county staff who are constantly threatened with sacking based on clan and tribal affiliations.
There have been cases of nepotism in new recruitment and dismissal of others based on where they come from. An example is Wajir Water Sewerage Company (WAJWASCO) and Wajir Referral Hospital.
The Wajir County Government has also either failed or delayed in clearing huge pending bills that has largely contributed to suffering of contractors and suppliers of goods and services.
We want also to use this opportunity to appeal to National Government, Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) and other agencies operating from Wajir to continue with the good work of supporting programmes that uplift the needy, poor and vulnerable in our communities particularly during this period of drought and famine.
We therefore call upon our supporters to remain calm as we start this very painful phase in the fight for electoral justice.
We request you to maintain peace and if necessary follow through the proceedings.
Once again, we wish to thank the people of Wajir for their steadfastness and support and urge them to neither lose hope nor sight of the bigger vision to transform the county.
God Bless You All.
Thank you.
Dr. Hassan M Adam
Delivered in Nairobi on this March 9, 2023.
You can follow this link for more information for yourself;
https://www.facebook.com/100076659649166/posts/pfbid0tNoWJRa7L7WrUyfj7mmqZn3p1vte44XPWdLhcSf1WvaA94HhX6DHnppfy2kRffNul/?app=fbl
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