5
“That I was appointed by Ochwo Nyakecho Keziah as the election supervisor of Tororo
District in the just concluded Woman Member of Parliamentary Elections”.
In paragraph 6, he stated that:
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“That I saw physically Obbo Onyango an agent of the Sarah Achieng Opendi giving out
money to Agnes Ochwo to influence her to vote for Sarah Achieng Opendi in Akadot Primary
School polling station”.
Unfortunately, this witness who was a supervisor for the respondent does not say where he saw
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Onyango Obbo bribe Agnes Ochwo. Was it on the way to the polling station as Agnes claims or at
the polling station as he seems to suggest.
If Paddy Oguti Simon was diligently carrying out his assignment of a supervisor at Akadot Polling
Station then, he could not at the same time have been able to see what was happening at the road
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before reaching the actual polling station.
In election matters, partisan witnesses have a tendency to exaggerate claims about what might have
happened during elections. In such situations, it is necessary to look for ‘other’ evidence to confirm
whether a particular witness is telling the truth.
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Apart from the evidence of Agnes Ochwo, there is no other piece of evidence to corroborate Agnes
Ochwo’s evidence. The allegations made by Agnes Ochwo required some ‘other’ evidence from an
independent source to confirm the truthfulness or falsity of her allegation.
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The names of other persons who were allegedly given Shs. 2000/= were not recorded. They would
have come up to corroborate the evidence of Agnes Ochwo. My view is that such evidence is
lacking because there was no recorded complaint for example with the Polling Constable regarding
the bribing of voters by Onyango Obbo.
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When the above evidence is subjected to exhaustive scrutiny, it does not conform to the ingredients
of bribery, hence the offence of bribery was with due respect to the learned trial judge not proved.
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