INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL AND BOUNDARIES COMMISSION & LEONARD OKEMWA (RETURNING OFFICER) V. STEPHEN MUTINDA MULE,THOMAS MALINDA MUSAU,STEPHEN NDAMBUKI MULI & JOHN NTHULI MAKENZI

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

By the time we were hearing this appeal, the by-election necessitated by the High Court’s (Hon. L. Mutende, J.) judgment delivered on 30.7.13 had been held. Stephen Mutinda Mule the 1^st respondent whose election as member of the National Assembly for Matungulu Constituency had been nullified by the High Court, was re-elected by the voters of that constituency in a by-election thus presenting to us a fortuitous fait accompli. We mulled on whether, in light of that by election and re-election, this appeal had been rendered moot but in the end were persuaded by submissions preciously made on behalf of the appellant and buttressed by Miss Muraguri, its learned counsel, that we needed to pronounce on some important questions of law spawned by the impugned judgment.

The memorandum of appeal filed herein raises no less than seventeen grounds of appeal. Some of the grounds contain what amounts to narrative or argument best left to submissions. We restate, as we have done s…