President Kenyatta displays his signed replying affidavit/PSCU
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 25 – President Uhuru Kenyatta Thursday night responded to a petition by Raila Odinga seeking nullification of his win over what they called a “fatally compromised” General Election.
In his 31-point affidavit – one among fifteen affidavits filed by his legal team at the Supreme Court Registry – President Kenyatta dismissed claims that the August 8 vote was marred with massive irregularities and tampering, asserting that the difference between the votes he garnered and those secured by National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga was a clear demonstration that the will of the people prevailed.
“The difference between the votes cast in my favour and those cast in favour of the Odinga is 1,401,286. Such a margin is significant and emphatically demonstrates the sovereign will of the people of Kenya,” he stated in the affidavit drawn by Ogetto, Otachi and Company Advocates.
The President particularly took issue with derogatory remarks used against him by his main rival in the General Election insisting his victory was effected by a majority of Kenyans; having met the threshold set under Article 138(4) of the Constitution which requires that a winning candidate gets more than half the number of votes cast countrywide and at least 25 per cent of the vote in “each of more than half the counties.”
“Despite such clear poll victory, Odinga has continuously disparaged the electoral win and coined such demeaning remarks as computer generated leaders. The Deputy President and I are not computer generated leaders (“vifaranga vya computer”).
In his affidavit, President Kenyatta pointed to his development record as well as an intensive campaign he jointly marshalled with his running mate that saw them hold over six hundred campaign rallies, as the reason he won a second term.
Further, he pointed out the overwhelming support his party received from all corners of the nation that saw him get at least 25 per cent of the vote in a total of thirty-five counties compared to Odinga’s twenty-nine.
In graphic illustrations, the President paraded trophies won in the other five elective seats where for instance his Jubilee Party secured 25 gubernatorial seats including Nairobi against Odinga’s Orange Democratic (ODM) Movement’s 13, Wiper Democratic Movement – Kenya’s (WDM – K) 2, Forum for Restoration of Democracy – Kenya’s (FORD – K) 2 and National Rainbow Coalition’s (NARC) 1 gubernatorial seat.
The ruling party also maintained the same pattern in senatorial races with 25 seats as the Odinga-led ODM secured 13 seats, WDM – K 2, Amani National Congress’s (ANC) 2 and FORD – K one senatorial seat in Bungoma held by one of NASA principals, Moses Wetangula.
President Kenyatta’s party secured a similar number of woman representatives in 47 counties, even as it secured 140 constituency seats out of the available 290, ODM only managing 61, WDM-K coming in third with 19 slots.
Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC won 12 seats, FORD – K bagged five, former Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto’s Chama Cha Mashinani getting two.
In other affidavits filed, President Kenyatta’s Chief Agent at the National Tallying Center Davis Chirchir poked holes into key NASA affidavits including those sworn by the two petitioners, Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka (WPM – K), ANC’s Secretary General Geoffrey Osotsi, Kenya Human Right Commission Executive Director George Kegoro, Mombasa governor Hassan Joho’s economic advisor Nyangaso Oduwo, as well as NASA Deputy Chief Agent Olga Karani.
In these affidavits, Chirchir dismissed all claims of election tampering and hacking of electoral commission servers in order to generate an outcome favorable to President Kenyatta.
Also filed is an affidavit by the Interior Principal Secretary Karanga Kibicho in response to Odinga and Nyangasi.
President Kenyatta’s defense also countered affidavits by two Presiding Officers from Mandera County, Mohamed Noor Barre and Ibrahim Mohamud Ibrahim who oversaw voting in Guticha and Kalicha Primary Schools respectively in Mandera.
The two had cited last-minute replacements of poll officials in the larger Mandera county as well as changing of the Mandera North Constituency Tallying Centre as reasons they believed elections were compromised.
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