The Supreme Court has Monday upheld the victory of William Ruto as Kenya’s fifth President
Chief Justice Martha Koome read the summarized ruling saying court had found no evidence on many of the allegations raised by Raila Odonga and team while challenging Ruto’s election.
JUDGEMENT
1. On whether the technology deployed by the IEBC for the conduct of the 2022 general elections met the standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results.
THE PETITIONERS FAILED TO PROVE OTHERWISE
2. ON Whether there was interference with the uploading and transmission of Forms 34A from the polling stations to the IEBC Public Portal.
THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE INTERFERENCE ON THE WANJIKU VOTE TO THE TALLYING CENTRE. THE PETITIONER FAILED TO PROVE BEYOND ANY REASONABLE DOUBTS THE CLAIM OF INTERFERENCE AND HOW IT AFFECTED THE ELECTRONICALLY TRANSMITTED VOTES
3. ON Whether there was a difference between Forms 34A uploaded on the IEBC Public Portal and the Forms 34A received at the National Tallying Centre, and Forms 34A issued to the Agents at the Polling Stations.
THERE WERE NO DIFFERENCES ON THE DIGITAL AND ANALOGUE FORMS AS TALLIES IF BOTH WERE COINCIDENTALLY THE SAME AS DECLARED BY IEBC CHAIR CHEBUKATI
4. ON Whether the postponement of Gubernatorial Elections in Kakamega and Mombasa Counties, Parliamentary elections in Kitui Rural, Kacheliba Rongai and Pokot South Constituencies and electoral wards in Nyaki West in North Imenti Constituency and Kwa Njenga in Embakasi South Constituency resulted in voter suppression.
THE POSTPONEMENT DID NOT AFFECT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS OUTCOME.
5. ON Whether there were unexplainable discrepancies between the votes cast for presidential candidates and other elective positions.
THE DEFENCE TEAM EXPLICITLY EXPLAINED THE MINOR VARIANCES BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTIAL VOTES AND OTHER SEATS
6. ON Whether the IEBC carried out the verification, tallying, and declaration of results in accordance with Article 138 (3) (c) and 138 (10) of the Constitution.
THE KENYAN CONSTITUTION IS A PROGRESSIVE ONE AND DID NOT FORESEE SOME CIRCUMSTANCES. THIS CANNOT BE USED AGAINST THE 9TH DEFENDANT PRESIDENT RUTO
7. ON Whether the declared President-elect attained 50%+1 vote of all the votes cast in accordance with Article 138 (4) of the Constitution.
THE PETITIONER FAILED TO PROVE THAT PRESIDENT ELECT RUTO DID NOT ATTAIN THE 50+1% MAINA KIAI 2017
8. ON Whether there were irregularities and illegalities of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the Presidential Election.
BACKROUND
On 15th August Ruto was elected as the country’s next President, the electoral commission announced
Ruto won with 50.49% of the vote, narrowly defeating veteran opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was contesting his fifth election.
He will become Kenya’s fifth President since independence, winning the seat on his first attempt. Ruto’s party, the Kenya First coalition, has won a majority of seats in Kenya’s senate, the second highest in the National Assembly.
than two hours past the constitutional deadline and the country’s electoral commission was split, after four officials disowned the commission’s chairman Wafula Chebukati’s results.
The opposing officials staged a press conference of their own at another venue disputing the official results. The IEBC’s vice chair Juliana Cherera was among those who disagreed with the results but provided no evidence of irregularities.
Earlier Monday, Ruto’s rival Odinga’s coalition also rejected the election results before they had even been announced by Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Odinga’s chief agent Saitabao Kanchory told the press outside the national election center in Nairobi that they had not yet been able to cross check the final result with their own tally.
“Once we see them, we want to verify them, when we verify them, we will be able to know and to tell the Kenyan people, because a result that is not verifiable is not a result.” Kanchory told reporters awaiting the results announcement.