Political Parties Tribunal has issued orders restraining the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party from forwarding names of all nominees for Roysambu constituency seat, Nairobi City Central Ward, California Ward, Pumwani ward and Ngara Ward to IEBC for gazettement.

The tribunal led by Desma Nungo, Kenneth Mutuma and Flora Mighulo stopped UDA from forwarding the nominated names following fresh nominations exercises that were conducted on Wednesday pending the hearing of a petition lodged in court by five UDA aspirants.

“The respondents are hereby restrained from presenting or submitting to IEBC any provisional nomination certificate that may be issued in respect of nominations exercise of April 20, 2022, pending the hearing and determination of this matter,” the Tribunal ordered.

The tribunal also directed the Deputy President William Ruto-led party to file its response in the suit before the next hearing date.

The decision comes after petitioners led by UDA Roysambu MP aspirant Wanjohi Njoroge and MCA aspirants Peter Munge (Nairobi Central Ward), Hashim Kimani (California ward), Paul Irungu( Pumwani Ward) and Cyrus Ndirangu(Ngara) sought orders stopping the party’s fresh nominations terming them as fraudulent.

They want the court to issue a declaration that the public notice dated April 17, 2022, issued by UDA calling for repeat nominations in Roysambu Constituency and the five wards are null and void.

The petitioners faulted the UDA’s National Election Board chairman Anthony Mwaura for calling for fresh nominations without any complaint having been filed at the board or at the Electoral and Nomination Dispute Resolution Committee by their opponents who would have called for a repeat of the nominations in the said areas.

“In any event, the complainants were never aware of such proceedings and were not given an opportunity to be heard in the proceedings, then the actions by the party of calling for repeat elections amounts to us being condemned unheard,” they said.

They further accused the UDA party of failing to explain why they even called for fresh nominations.