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Former Mathare MP faces legal action over unpaid mortgage

Wanjohi

Former Mathare MP George Wanjohi. PHOTO | FILE

Former Mathare MP George Wanjohi could face legal action for failing to service a mortgage he took from Parliament before losing his seat through a court petition and subsequent by-election in 2014.

The Parliamentary Mortgage Scheme Fund says it has forwarded Mr Wanjohi’s matter to the Directorate of Litigation and Compliance office for further recovery.

“During the year under review, there was an issue of one Member of Parliament who lost both through a court petition and later a by-election (and) has since not serviced his mortgage facility,” the administrator of the scheme Justin Bundi, a former clerk of the National Assembly, says in the schemes audited books of accounts for the year to June 2016.

“The matter was forwarded and taken up by the Directorate of Litigation and Compliance office for further recovery.”

Mr Wanjohi, the then National Alliance (TNA)’s MP for Mathare constituency, lost his seat after the Court of Appeal annulled his election victory.

A three-judge bench declared that the electoral commission committed an offence and sustained an illegality when it recalled and cancelled the victory certificate it had earlier issued to Mr Wanjohi’s opponent, Stephen Kariuki who vied on an the ODM ticket.

Mr Kariuki had been declared winner of the 2013 General Election with 34,076 votes against Mr Wanjohi’s 32,156 votes.

However, matters changed three days later when the IEBC, through a letter directed Mr Wanjohi to surrender his victory certificate for cancellation saying it had been issued “erroneously.”

Mr Kariuki then won the August 2014 by-election that the appellate judges sanctioned.