Court Orders Recount of Mbeere North MP By-Election Ballots

The High Court of Kenya has directed a limited review and recount of the ballot and other materials in the disputed 2025 by-election that saw Leonard Wamuthende Njeru declared the winner as the Mbeere North MP.

In a decision made on Friday, March 27, the High Court, through the judgment of Justice R. Mwongo, directed the recount of the ballot in some of the polling stations and ballot boxes where the court had established some irregularities in the process while dismissing claims of voter bribery and other forms of interference in the process.

This comes in the wake of an election petition filed by Newton Kariuki Ndwiga over the disputed results of the by-election.

Court’s Determinations on Scrutiny and Recount

“From all the evidence adduced by the parties witnesses herein, and taking into account the respondents’ witnesses’ evidence on the DR’s Report, the following conclusions and determinations inevitably follow:

(1) There shall be limited scrutiny and recount of ballots and elections material in terms of Section 82(2)(a) Elections Act, and Rules 28 and 29 of the Elections (Parliamentary and County Elections) Rules, as hereinunder directed;
(2) Ballot box No.135 contains Strategic Materials delivered at the Tallying Centre as indicated in the DRs Report, which has items that were placed therein without any basis or explanation, and without any record thereof having been made. It is unclear why the items therein were not placed in the respective polling station ballot boxes on the polling day. As a result, this box, will, undoubtedly, have to be opened to scrutinise all the contents therein referred to as Strategic Materials.
(3) Further, it is necessary to open all the 15 boxes containing the KIEMS kits referred to at pages 7-9 of the DRs Report in order to obtain the Kits used in the various polling stations where scrutiny and recount will be required pursuant to the orders of the Court herein.
(4) The 4 ballot boxes containing “Other Strategic Materials” will need to be opened to enable scrutiny of Forms 32 and the PSDs.
(5) Ballot boxes for Nthigirani1/1, Kamauwa 1/1, Gwakaithi 1/1, Siakago Social Hall 1/1, Mbaruari 1/1, and Cingera 2/2 polling stations shall be opened to ascertain whether there are registers of voters therein and scrutinize the same vis a vis the KIEMS kit register and Polling Station Diaries (PSDs) for those polling stations.
(6) It is necessary that there be scrutiny of the register of voters and KIEMS Kit registers for Siakago Social Hall, Mwondu Primary School and Gikuyari Primary School Polling Stations, together with their PSDs to ascertain whether the record therein shows that the unregistered/unidentified voters cast their ballots in the named polling stations.

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(7) A full scrutiny of ballot materials and recount of ballots shall be conducted for Gitiburi 1 and 2 polling stations following the outbreak of fire in Gitiburi 2 resulting in commotion with the resultant temporary break in the chain of custody of polling materials, and leading to votes for both Gitubiri 1 and Gitubiri 2 having to be counted at Gitiburi 1.
(8) The evidence availed demonstrated that where there may have been cases of voter bribery this did not occur at polling stations. It was not clearly demonstrated from the evidence availed that there was a clear connection between any such bribery and the votes at any specific polling station. In the absence of any such specificity with regard to bribery, there is no basis laid for scrutiny or recount at any particular polling station.
(9) The Court perused the Forms 35A presented as evidence, and notes that the agents present signed them, and where the results were not satisfactory, the forms indicated that the agents refused to sign. On account of this, there is no basis for ordering scrutiny of these forms and connected materials to ascertain whether some agents were denied access to the polling stations.
(10) There is persuasive evidence that the gross violence and overrunning of wananchi witnessed at Kaungu polling station resulting in a thirty (30) minute closure of polling, could have affected the outcome of the election. On this basis, it is necessary for the election materials for Kaungu Polling station to be scrutinised and votes recounted.
(11) On the claim that alterations were made on the election forms, the court has perused the Forms 35A produced as evidence by the petitioner. As mentioned hereinbefore, the applicant named 37 polling stations where, according to him, Forms 35A were altered and the alterations were visible and not countersigned. The Court perused all the 37 particularised forms, and is of the view that scrutiny of Forms 35A and ballots and counterfoils in the following polling stations is necessary to ascertain whether the number of votes cast according to Forms 35A is the same as the number of votes indicated in the KIEMS log for the polling day and as compared to the tallies transferred to Form 35B. The 8 stations affected in this respect are: Rwagori Primary School 1/1, Karimari Primary School 1/1, Kanyuambora Primary School 1/3, Karambari Primary School 1/1, Kamauwa Primary School 1/1, Ibutuka Primary School 1/1, Kogari Primary School 1/1 and St. Mary’s Kanganga Primary School 1/1.”

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Timelines and Next Steps

Following the order from the court, a report will be prepared by the Deputy Registrar and submitted no later than April 17, 2026, detailing findings regarding any recount process.

This report will be important for providing evidence about this petition once it is reviewed.

Subsequent to the allowability of the petition, the court has indicated that additional procedural orders will be issued for the recount and recheck process, to promote transparency in the conduct of an election.

The date set for the mention date is April 22, 2026, for the arguments pertaining to the merits of the petition as well as the oral submissions pertaining to the findings regarding the re-check and/or re-count and evidence thereof.

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