The High Court has on Monday, July 18, declined to order Independent Electoral and  Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to include the veteran gospel singer Reuben Kigame in the ballot.

Justice Anthony Mrima said this would be overstepping its mandate as that was the role of the electoral commission.

The Court, however, issued an order to the commission to receive Kigame's nomination papers for review and approval regardless of a deficit in signatures presented.

"The Petitioner has demonstrated exemplary effort in complying with the requirements despite his disability and without any special treatment as is so required in the Constitution and the law, this Court is satisfied that, on account of the disability and the effort demonstrated, the signatures of the supporters collected by the Petitioner which are already in the possession together with those which the Petitioner had collected, but were not received by the IEBC suffice the requirement for the signatures. The Petitioner shall, therefore, not be disqualified on account of insufficient number of signatures of his supporters,” read the ruling.

In his ruling, Justice Antony Mrima indicated that the IEBC had violated the rights of Kigame by knocking him out of the contest.

The singer was disqualified from the race by the commission for failing to obtain the 48,000 signature threshold which was a requirement for candidates.