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Wetangula now risks losing senatorial seat


Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula’s political future hangs in the balance after Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro gazetted the Supreme Court report that found that he committed election offence in 2013.

It is unclear if Mr Wetangula will lose his seat if the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) strikes his name from the voters’ register.

In the Friday gazette notice, Mr Ethuro said: “On March 17, 2015 the Supreme Court of Kenya petition No. 12 of 2014 Moses Masika Wetangula and Musikari Nazi Kombo and 2 others found that Moses Masika Wetangula Senator of the County of Bungoma committed the election offence of bribery during the March 2013 general elections.”

He went on: “The Court made its finding after considering the record of fact before it and the findings of the High Court and Court of Appeal.”

SENATE MINORITY LEADER

Mr Wetangula is a Cord co-principal and minority leader in the Senate. A week ago, the Cord leaders accused Jubilee government of using IEBC to intimidate the coalition.

ODM chairman John Mbadi dared the government to “touch Wetang’ula”, warning that as a co-principal, they would resist any attempts to blackmail him.“Anyone who thinks he can touch Wetang’ula must know he is touching the heart of Cord,” vowed Mbadi.

“State agencies have been hard at work leaking to the media documents they know cannot otherwise stand a chance before any functional court,” added Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale. “This is not the law at work. It is naked and raw politics at play.”

The Cord leaders claimed that IEBC was exacting pressure on the Senate Speaker to gazette the Supreme Court report so as to disorganize it by barring Mr Wetangula in 2017.