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Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi Jiir can now breathe a sigh of relief after High Court upheld his election in the August 9, 2022, general election.

In his ruling, Justice George Nduru said Governor Abdullahi’s election was conducted according to the constitution and the election laws.

“There is no evidence in record or even to suggest that unregistered voter voted in a particular station or no evidence showed the voters who voted in any polling station were more than the registered voters in those stations,” he ruled.

The judge further said although there were irregularities during the election, they were not sufficient enough to change the results used to declare Governor Abdullahi as the winner.

“I find that IEBC officials failed to counter-sign Form 37A as alleged which must have been caused by human error which was excusable because no election is perfect. This is not enough evidence to overturn an election,” the judge said.

Governor Abdullahi was on Tuesday, December 13 put to task to explain how he clinched victory in the August 9 polls

Cross-examined by lawyer Mansur Issa for the petitioner former NHIF chief executive officer Hassan Adam, the governor was put to task to explain how he won the hotly contested gubernatorial race.

The governor maintained that he was duly elected as he dismissed claims that he benefited from election malpractices and illegality.

This is even as he admitted having a parallel tallying centre at his residence.

The governor said that he learned there was chaos and Eldas leading to the postponement of the election to the following day.

Justice Nduru heard that the communication for the postponement was done by the IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati after he received the complaints of insecurity in the area by the security chiefs.

Clan politics during governor race

Abdullahi was further put to task to explain how politics in Wajir is largely clan-based. In his response informed the court that there are 12 Degodia sub-clans and 11 had unanimously endorsed him and only the FAI sub-clan to which Adam belongs was indecisive.

The sub-clan had produced four candidates running for the office of the governor (Ugas Mohamed, Mohamed Elmi, Mohamed Abdi Mohamud and the petitioner).

At the same time, the governor agreed with the petitioner’s allegations that there was violence at the Eldas constituency during the August elections but not enough to postpone elections.

He, however, told the court that he was not aware when the violence was contained by the security personnel deployed adding that the same violence was occasioned by a disagreement between two parliamentary contestants

“I am aware there were security incidents at Wajir east constituency on August 6 and 7 and we buried 4 people and that was not a reason to postpone elections,” said Abdullahi

He told the court that It was not the first time such incidents happened in that constituency and that’s the main reason that there are security forces in Turbo.

In the petition, the petitioner Adam had told the court that IEBC unlawfully and without sufficient reason and/or just cause postponed the elections in Eldas Constituency within Wajir County to 10 August 2022.

The petitioner further told justice Ndulu that there was no communication made to the candidates in relation to the postponement yet they had already deployed their agents to their respective polling stations.

Adam in his petition claimed Abdullahi was not validly elected as governor for Wajir county and that the IEBC did not put in mechanisms to ensure that the voters were biometrically identified before being allowed to vote for candidates in a number of polling stations in Wajir county.

“As a consequence of this unlawful postponement, there was interference with the voting held on 10 August this year with cases of intimidation and coercion of voters in several polling stations in Eldas constituency,” Adam said.

Adam vied for the governor’s seat on the Jubilee party ticket and lost to Abdullahi of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party.

He garnered 27,224 votes against Abdullahi’s 35,533 votes.