NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 23 – Anti-Corruption Activist John Githongo has submitted a damning affidavit at the Supreme Court in support of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga’s Presidential petition alleging that a whistle-blower confided in him on how he was part of a team that manipulated presidential results.
Githongo’s affidavit seeks to overturn Deputy President William Ruto’s victory following his declaration as President Elect in the just concluded August 9 polls.
In a well detailed affidavit, the former journalist Githongo said that the whistleblower told him that he was part of 56 people dubbed ‘The Team’ and who had been recruited to allegedly infiltrate the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) systems.
“Their task was to receive form 34As from KIEMS kits which were sent to their server/platform, which he called ‘Uchaguzi Tallying’. They would edit the said forms and upload the edited ones in PDF format into the IEBC portal,” Githongo stated.
Githongo further stated that the Team had 10 supervisors who were guiding and directing the other 46 individuals who were recruited to access and manipulate forms 34As.
He accused some IEBC officials led by Chairperson Wafula Chebukati of working closely with the said supervisors in changing the number of votes in favour of Ruto.
“He further informed me that they had access to the back end of the IEBC server through an arrangement between the 1st and 2nd respondents, officials of the 1st respondent’s ICT department together with Smartmatic, the company that won the tender to provide election technology in the just concluded general election,” a part of Githongo’s affidavit read.
“The goal was to ensure that votes were increased in favour of 9th respondent (William Ruto) in his strongholds and to shore up his numbers in areas where there was a low voter turnout.”
Githongo also alleged that the ‘Team’ had been instructed to systematically reduce Odinga’s votes in his strongholds and add them to Ruto.
After explaining everything the whistleblower told him in what appears like a crime movie Githongo did not give his identity saying that the young man was hesitant to give his evidence before court arguing that he would potentially put his life and that of his family in danger.
He however indicated that the evidence had been recorded on camera, but his face was covered, and voice distorted to conceal his identity.
The Supreme Court had received 9 Presidential Petitions by close of business on Monday.
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga who is the main petitioner accused IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati of usurping the role and functions of the commission by declaring results from the 27 constituencies that had not been tallied or verified by the commission.
The Azimio coalition wants both a re-run and a re-tallying of the August 9th Presidential Election.
The petition largely placed the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati at the centre of the dispute.
The Azimio petition indicates that Chebukati failed to tally around 140,000 votes.
As a result, Ruto “did not meet the constitutional threshold of 50% plus 1 of the valid votes cast” – a requirement for him to be declared the winner.
Apart from Odinga, other petitioners include John Njoroge Kamau, Daniel Kariuki Ngari, Juliah Nyokabi, Khalef Khalifa, Okiya Omtatah, Youth Advocacy Africa and Reuben Kigame.
Kigame, a gospel musician cum politician was also in the race to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta before the electoral body locked him out of the race.
He argued that IEBC put in place unreasonable deadlines for presidential aspirants in order to be cleared to run, thereby locking out some aspirants.
On the other hand, Chama Cha Kazi Party leader Moses Kuria also moved to the Supreme Court to dismiss Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga ’s petition seeking to nullify President-elect William Ruto’s win.
In his suit papers, the former Gatundu South MP cited the violence that was witnessed during last Monday’s declaration at the Bomas of Kenya as his main reason.
The seven-judge-bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome will now hear and determine the petitions within 14 days and issue their verdict by latest September 5.
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