A former Member of County Assembly (MCA) in Kilifi County is a worried man after his successor declined to pay him court awards emanating from election petitions since 2013.
Adamson Mwathethe, who was the first MCA for Shela ward in Malindi Constituency and who served for two consecutive terms, told journalists that efforts to get the money paid have been futile and warrants of arrest issued by the court against the current MCA Abdulrahman Twahir have never been effected by the local police.
Mwathethe’s journey as an MCA has never been smooth where in 2013, a Malindi magistrates court nullified his election and he was forced to defend his seat in a by-election.
He was lucky to win again with a landslide but Twahir, who was his competitor, went back to court in a case that dragged all the way to the court of appeal. Both the lower court and the appeal court upheld his win and awarded him damages that were to be paid by Twahir.
In the 2017 General Election, Mwathethe successfully defended his seat on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party but again, Twahir moved to court seeking to overturn the results but he failed from the magistrate court all the way to the court of appeal.
“When I was MCA for ten years, the current MCA who was by then my main challenger kept me in court for the entire period but when he won this time round, I did not take him to court and he was to pay me damages worth Sh. 4 million shillings for the previous election petitions but he doesn’t appear in court to answer to the case,” he said.
Mwathethe now wants the Malindi Police Station OCS to effect the warrants of arrest so that Twahir can be taken to court and explain why he cannot pay the damages.
“This is the fifth month the case is dragging but Twahir has totally refused to appear in court to state why he doesn’t want to pay me. Today we are talking about a mere MCA, what will happen if it’s a governor, MP, senator or women representative, the OCS should just appear in court and state why he has failed to effect the warrants or arrest,” said Mwathethe while holding the court documents.
When sought for comment, Twahir denied the allegations saying that the courts did not award Mwathethe any damages for the election petitions.
