NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 1 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC) has maintained that it conducted a fair, free, verifiable, and transparent election that adhered to all constitutional requirements.
Speaking before Supreme Court Judges hearing the presidential petition, Senior Counsel Githu Muigai who is representing the commission said the electoral body relied on guidelines given by the court in 2017 when President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election was nullified and did not repeat the mistakes.
“The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and its Chairperson conducted an election that was in accordance with the guidelines given by this court. Since the annulment of the 2017 election, IEBC overhauled its entire electoral process procedures to align them with the guidelines given by this Court,” Muigai said.
“The petition before you has absolutely nothing to do with any legal lacuna because you have spoken so loudly. Your own thoughts on the subject are very well laid out in your previous judgments.”
He accused the petitioners led by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga of relying on generalities, innuendos, and assumptions to have the victory of William Ruto as President-Elect overturned and failed to focus on numbers and facts.
“This petition is about numbers. It is ultimately about numbers. The Petitioners have tried to argue about everything else except numbers. This is one of the few petitions that this court has seen that is full of generalities, innuendos, and hypothecations and I believe there is one counsel who repeated several times; our theory is; our take is; our understanding is, not evidence nothing of probative value,” he said.
Muigai urged the seven-judge bench led by Martha Koome to dismiss the petition saying it lacks merit and is below the required standards of a presidential petition.
Lawyers representing Odinga led by Senior Counsel James Orengo on Wednesday said the petition filed at the Supreme Court ‘is not a conspiracy theory’.
In his submission, Odinga stated their petition is hinged on an apparent “pattern of violations” of the Constitution.
“If you look at the evidence before you, we invite you much lordship to conclude that what happened to August 9 this year and the subsequent events that followed on August 15 mark a pattern of violations against the Constitution,” Odinga lead counsel James Orengo submitted.
Odinga submitted that the IEBC violated the Constitution by subverting the people’s will.
In the consolidated petition, Odinga asked the court to nullify the August 9 election because the Commission had rigged it in favor of Ruto.
In his prayers, he also submitted that Ruto had failed to attain the 50 percent plus one vote required by law.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati, on August 15, 2022, declared Ruto the President-Elect after garnering 7,176,141 (50.49 percent) votes against Odinga, who got 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent).
After hearing submissions from all parties, the supreme court will issue its verdict by Monday.
