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Few things test an electoral body’s record-keeping like a petition filed over a razor-thin result. In the Muthambi Ward MCA election, the winning margin was just 173 votes out of nearly 9,900 cast. The losing candidate petitioned to have the result nullified, alleging bribery, voter transportation, agent exclusion, unlawful campaigning, and fraudulent tallying. The Chief […]

Election petitions are expensive, slow, and as the Tharaka Nithi County case showed, very hard to win without the right kind of evidence lined up well before polling day. A candidate who lost a County Assembly seat by just 173 votes petitioned to have the result thrown out, alleging a familiar list: bribery, vote-buying, agent […]

Most organisations that run a regulated process (licensing decisions, tender awards, disciplinary hearings, exam results, membership votes) will, sooner or later, have that process challenged by someone unhappy with the outcome. A 2017 Kenyan election petition, though decided in a courtroom in Chuka, offers a lesson that applies well beyond politics: when a decision is […]

It isn’t often that an election petition doubles as a data-governance case study, but the High Court’s recent decision in Newton Kariuki Ndwiga v IEBC & 3 Others (Election Petition No. E002 of 2025, High Court at Embu, delivered 21 May 2026) is exactly that. At its core, part of the dispute was a data-integrity question: what […]

Every membership organisation eventually faces the same tense season: election time. Whether it’s a SACCO electing its board, a trade union electing officials, or a professional body like the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) electing its Council, the legitimacy of the people who end up in office  (and every decision they make afterward) depends on […]

What happened An employee in charge of a booklet of acknowledgment slips discovered that several had gone missing, apparently used fraudulently by someone else entirely. He did what most conscientious employees would do: he reported it immediately to his supervisors, then to the police. He was, nonetheless, the one charged with theft. The prosecution dragged […]

Most disputes involving institutions  (whether a regulator, a public agency, or a corporate board) eventually turn on one question: can you prove you followed your own process? A recent High Court judgment arising from an election petition offers a masterclass in why documentation and institutional discipline, not just the “right” final outcome, are what actually protect an […]

For nearly two years after the 2022 General Election, Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had no sitting Commissioners. New Commissioners were only sworn in on 11th July 2025. Yet during that gap, on 5th March 2024, the IEBC went ahead and supervised elections for the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Council, LSK’s male […]

Compliance and investigations teams are often the first line of defence when something goes wrong internally (a discrepancy, a suspected fraud, a missing asset). The instinct to escalate quickly, involve law enforcement, and let the courts determine guilt is understandable. But a recent Milimani Commercial Court decision is a useful case study in how an […]

When a losing candidate challenges an election result, most people assume the case comes down to a simple question: who got more votes? The High Court’s recent judgment in Newton Kariuki Ndwiga v Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission & 3 Others (Election Petition No. E002 of 2025, High Court at Embu) is a reminder that Kenyan election […]