Kipipiri MP Wanjiku Muhia/FILE
High Court suspends KSh1.5 million penalty against Kipipiri MP pending full hearing of her legal challenge
By MKT Reporter
The High Court has temporarily suspended a KSh1.5 million fine imposed on Kipipiri MP Wanjiku Muhia by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission over remarks she made during campaigns for the Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election.
Justice Nabil Mokaya Orina issued the interim orders yesterday, staying the enforcement of a judgment delivered last week earlier by the IEBC’s Electoral Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee, pending the hearing and determination of Muhia’s application challenging the decision. “That in the meantime, pending the hearing and determination of the application, an order is hereby issued staying the judgment,” the court ruled. The case will next be mentioned on July 20, when the court is expected to issue further directions.
The stay halts, for now, the commission’s demand that Muhia pay the fine and deliver a signed public apology within 72 hours of the original ruling — a deadline that had already lapsed by the time she sought judicial review. Her lawyers argued that the IEBC’s decision should not take effect until the substantive challenge to its legality has been heard in full.
The dispute traces back to a rally on June 14, when Muhia was campaigning in Ol Kalou for Democracy for Citizens Party candidate Sammy Kamau Ngotho. According to the Electoral Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee, she urged residents to organise themselves in small groups to monitor outsiders in the constituency — remarks the committee found capable of inciting hostility against people considered non-indigenous to the area. Committee chairperson Moses Alutalala Mukhwana said the panel was satisfied the evidence presented against her was genuine. “The committee is satisfied that the evidence before it is true, not altered or forged,” he said, adding that Muhia’s continued defiance could expose her to tougher sanctions, including a possible bar from future IEBC-conducted elections.
Muhia’s legal team has contested the process from the outset. When the committee first convened to hear the complaint, her lawyers walked out in protest, questioning both its composition and its jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter. The IEBC dismissed the objection and proceeded in her absence, delivering its ruling on July 10. It is that decision — reached without the MP present to defend herself — that now forms the core of her High Court challenge.
In the days between the fine and the court’s intervention, the case took on a life of its own beyond the courtroom. Muhia went public with an appeal for financial support, sharing a paybill number and thanking supporters for what she called an outpouring of solidarity. “I am deeply overwhelmed by the incredible love and support you have shown me,” she told residents of Kipipiri and Ol Kalou in a statement over the weekend. She later asked her base to pause the fundraising effort until she had consulted further with her legal team — a pause that, with Monday’s court order, has effectively been made moot for now.
The episode lands in the middle of one of the most closely watched by-elections on this year’s political calendar. Ol Kalou has drawn national attention not only for its razor-edge contest between DCP and UDA-aligned candidates, but for a string of controversies around campaign conduct. The IEBC has separately summoned Nakuru Town East MP David Gikaria over allegations of his own Code of Conduct breaches during the same campaign period, and the commission has warned more broadly that continued violations could threaten the credibility, or even the timeline, of the vote itself. The Law Society of Kenya has cautioned against any postponement of the by-election, insisting instead on firm legal consequences for electoral offences, while Amnesty International Kenya has called for investigations into bribery and violence linked to the campaign.
For the IEBC, the Muhia case has become something of a test of how far its Code of Conduct enforcement powers can reach against sitting legislators — and how quickly those powers can be checked by the courts. For Muhia, the stay offers breathing room, but not resolution. The underlying question of whether her June 14 remarks crossed the line from robust campaigning into incitement has yet to be settled, and will now be argued out in a courtroom rather than concluded by commission fiat.
What happens next will matter well beyond Ol Kalou. Kenya heads into an increasingly charged pre-2027 political season in which campaign rhetoric, ethnic framing and the boundaries of acceptable political speech are already under strain. How the courts eventually rule on Muhia’s case — and how firmly the IEBC’s authority to police conduct on the campaign trail is either upheld or curtailed — will send a signal to every candidate preparing for the contests still to come.
For now, the fine stands suspended, the apology undelivered, and the matter unresolved. Muhia returns to her constituency with the immediate pressure lifted, but the case that will determine whether her words crossed a legal line is only just beginning.
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