By James Murimi - Reporter
Kenya, May 12, 2026 - The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Electoral and Nomination Dispute Resolution Committee has given defeated Ol Kalou aspirant George Wambugu Delight until Tuesday evening to pay the mandatory Sh100,000 filing fee and submit evidence in his petition challenging Samuel Muchina Nyagah’s victory.
The directive emerged during tense proceedings at the UDA headquarters in Nairobi on Monday, where lawyers representing both camps clashed over timelines, filing fees and the credibility of the complaint in a dispute now threatening to trigger a fresh political storm within the ruling party.
The hearing, which lasted from 3pm to 6pm before a three-member committee chaired by Dr Adrian Kamotho, exposed the growing intensity of the battle for control of the UDA ticket ahead of the Ol Kalou by-election.
Committee members Hellen Makori and Zipporah Cherop also sat during the proceedings attended by lawyers Joseph Wang’ondu for Wambugu, Tumen Manasseh and Lorraine Serem for the UDA Elections Board, and Levi Munyeri for Muchina.
In submissions before the tribunal, Wambugu’s lawyer argued that the timelines issued by the committee were unrealistic and requested seven more days to gather evidence. He further pleaded with the tribunal to reduce the Sh100,000 filing fee to Sh50,000, arguing that his client was financially strained after the costly nominations exercise.
“If not reduced to at least half the amount, our client’s right to be heard stands to be violated,” Wang’ondu argued. But Muchina’s lawyer Levi Munyeri mounted a strong opposition, insisting they were fully prepared to proceed and accusing the complainant of filing a case unsupported by evidence.
“We emphasized the importance of procedural fairness, the need for the Complainant to provide evidence within 48 hours, and pointed out that the complaint is devoid of evidence,” Munyeri stated in an update after the session.
The committee subsequently directed Wambugu to pay the full filing fee and file all supporting documents by 5pm on Tuesday, May 12, before serving all parties with proof of payment and evidence.
The tribunal also granted Muchina’s team leave to file additional documents ahead of the substantive hearing scheduled for Wednesday, May 13 at 3pm.
In a significant indication of the seriousness of the matter, the committee stated that it would “go to the full extent in determining whether the elections were properly conducted.”
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Munyeri further disclosed that his team had sought written directions from the tribunal and warned they would immediately push for the petition to be struck out should Wambugu fail to comply with the payment and filing requirements.
“Should the Complainant fail to comply with the payment and filing requirements, we will immediately move the Committee to strike out the complaint so as to save costs and render the hearing nugatory,” Munyeri stated.
The dispute stems from the fiercely contested May 8 UDA nominations in which Muchina was declared winner with 3,221 votes against Wambugu’s 3,077 votes, a margin of just 144 votes in a race that attracted ten aspirants.
Wambugu has accused election officials of presiding over tallying irregularities, formula manipulation, suspicious aggregation of results and manual voter entries in several wards including Mirangine, Rurii, Kaimbaga, Karau and Kanjuiri Range.
He further claimed that individuals linked to rival camps manually entered lists of identification numbers into the system to manipulate the outcome in favour of a preferred candidate.
“Our agents noticed people aligned to my competitors providing lists of ID numbers to be manually entered into the system to favor a particular candidate,” Wambugu alleged in his complaint.
The complainant is seeking either a repeat nomination exercise or a full forensic audit and reconciliation of tally sheets and electronic records.
However, Muchina’s legal team has dismissed the allegations as “hearsay, speculative and legally defective,” arguing that no audit reports, tally sheets or raw electronic data had been presented to support claims capable of overturning the results.
The Ol Kalou by-election was occasioned by the death of area MP David Njuguna Kiaraho, who was serving his third term under the Jubilee Party led by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.