Chief Justice David Maraga and other judges of the Supreme Court/MOSES MUOKI
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 31 – Supreme Court Judges who heard the petition by National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga contesting the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as President have less than 24 hours to come up with a judgment.
Should they be convinced that the electoral malpractices affected the presidential result, President Kenyatta and Raila will have to face off again in 60 days.
But if they uphold President Kenyatta’s election, he will have to be sworn in on the first Tuesday on expiry of seven days after Friday’s verdict which will be on 12th September.
The Supreme Court judges are Chief David Maraga, his deputy Philomena Mwilu, Ibrahim Mohamed, Jackton Ojwang, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndungu, and Isaac Lenaola.
At stake is whether the errors raised by NASA are enormous to conclude that the electoral agency did not conduct the polls in accordance with the Constitution and the law.
After initially ruling out taking its complaints to court, the opposition in the end asked the Supreme Court to annul the result of the presidential election, filing its petition just hours before the constitutional deadline on August 18.
Opposition lawyers denounced a “litany” of irregularities, accusing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of having falsified results during the several days it took to publish polling station and constituency tally sheets on its website.
The Supreme Court ordered the opposition lawyers be granted access to IEBC computer servers, documentation, voter identification kits and GPS data.
The IEBC failed to abide by all the orders of the court yet opposition lawyer James Orengo claimed the information gathered proved the fraud allegations affecting more than five million votes.
The electoral body denied rigging but acknowledged some “inadvertent errors” that it said would not affect the outcome of the vote.
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