Kakamega: A Kakamega High Court has dismissed an election petition challenging the election of David Ndakwa as Member of Parliament for Malava Constituency. Justice Stephen Mbugi ruled that the petition filed by the closest competitor, Seth Panyako of the Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP-K), has no merit and did not meet the threshold needed to nullify the outcome of the election.
According to Kenya News Agency, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had on November 28, 2025, declared Ndakwa as the winner of the by-election by garnering 21,564 votes against Panyako’s 20,210 votes. Wilberforce India of the Kenya Moja Party obtained 629 votes to come in third position. The by-election, conducted across 198 polling stations, recorded a voter turnout of 46 percent, with 43,675 voters casting their votes from a voter population of 94,412.
While Panyako maintained that he won in 134 of the 198 polling stations, he had petitioned against alleged malpractices in 54 polling stations. He also accused the government of allegedly instigating chaos in the constituency against him and his supporters. The opposition, led by Cleophas Malala, Deputy Party Leader of the Democratic Citizen’s Party (DCP), had earlier called for a recount of the votes in contested polling stations before the IEBC announced the results.
The judge, however, ruled that the petition failed to prove sufficient evidence to warrant nullification of the results declared by IEBC. He said they didn’t have adequate qualitative and quantitative proof to warrant that the alleged malpractices impacted the overall results of the by-election. The judge consequently confirmed Ndakwa as the legitimate MP for Malava constituency.
Following the ruling, Panyako, who spoke to the media after the ruling, voiced his displeasure, saying he was not ‘at all’ convinced with the ruling. He maintained that violence had been reported in four of the seven polling stations under dispute and that the margin of victory was very close and could have influenced the outcome of the by-election. His lawyer, Nelson Havi, described the ruling as a ‘miscarriage of justice’, saying there was sufficient evidence of violence to warrant interference with the electoral process and sufficient to have affected the outcome. He added that he would be advising his client to challenge the ruling in a higher court.
Ndakwa, on his side, welcomed the ruling, saying the will of the people had prevailed. His supporters took to the streets to celebrate the win.
