Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero hired advocate Julie Soweto in his petition challenging the election victory of Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga.
Soweto was seen in the company of the former governor at the Homa Bay High Court on Friday, October 7, where the pretrial hearing of the case was set to take place.
Kidero is among the few candidates who went against the Orange Democratic Movement party (ODM) in the Nyanza region during the last elections. The former Nairobi governor vied as an independent candidate in the August 9 election where he came in second behind Wanga.
While protesting his loss, Kidero claimed that his agents were locked out from some polling stations where his opponents interfered with the tallying of votes.
He vowed to dispute the outcome and proceeded to file a case against the IEBC and Governor Wanga.
“Forms 37A were altered in many polling stations thus causing a lot of anomalies in the results. We will follow what the law dictates to dispute the gubernatorial results,” Kidero said.
“I have always been a peaceful person and that is the major reason I am here. To my people, keep calm because this issue will be sufficiently addressed,” he added.
Soweto was part of the battery of 42 lawyers representing the Azimio la Umoja chief Raila Odinga in the August presidential petition case.
She stood out during the submissions in the case after claiming that a Venezuelan national, Jose Camargo, interfered with the IEBC portal and also appeared on one of the forms 34 A used in the transmission of election results.
However, her evidence was dismissed by Chief Justice Martha Koome who termed it as hot air.
While reading the abridged version of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Chief Justice stated that the claims were not substantiated and thus lacked grounds.
“We turn to Form 34A of Gacharage Primary School which was sensationally presented by Advocate Julie Soweto to show that one Jose Carmago accessed the RTS and interfered with the results contained therein.
“This also turned out to be no more than hot air and we were taken on a wild goose chase that yielded nothing of probative value,” the CJ read in the judgement.
The comments about Soweto’s submissions were, however, subjected to harsh criticism from Raila and his allies including the lead counsel in the case, James Orengo, Soweto’s mentor.
Soweto has been a close associate of Orengo, the Siaya governor. She also represented Raila in the 2017 presidential petition at the Supreme Court.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
