Babu Owino is not one to shy away from controversy. He revels in it. But this is one controversy that he would like to hide or if possible go away permanently. On Wednesday, October 11, the High Court heard a case filed by Jubilee Party candidate Francis Mureithi who petitioned the court to seek the nullification of Owino’s victory and notifying the respondents; Owino, the Constituency’s returning officer and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission through a newspaper notice on September 7.
On Wednesday, the Jubilee candidate asked the court to dismiss Owino’s response to his petition, reason being, the first time parliamentarian filed his submissions outside the required 7 days stipulated in the law. eDaily quoted the petitioner as saying:
“All three respondents refused, neglected and failed to file their notices of response within the prescribed time. No explanation was given by Babu Owino to explain the delay. He is responsible for the delay. It is a case of negligence by the MP to allege he had not seen the advert in widely circulated newspapers,”
This even as lawyers representing the returning officer and the IEBC admitted that indeed they took note of the notice late but made efforts to at least put in a reply. Owino’s lawyers, Jackson Awlele and Edwin Sifuna, said they made late responses based on the service which was done through a newspaper which skipped their attention.
By the court establishing that indeed Babu filed his response past the deadline, it would mean that he did not challenge the petition subsequently losing his seat according to the desires of the petitioner and a fresh election ordered. The court will return its verdict on Wednesday, October 18.
This is one case Babu will wish he could have avoided. How? By just simply responding on time to the case but as you well know he was occupied calling other people children of dog’s. Priorities Babu! Priorities! Anywho, that is the news.
