NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 1 – Lawyer Mahat Somane, appearing for the electoral commission, told the Supreme Court Thursday that petitioners contesting the results of the August 9 presidential election were simply afraid of reconciling with the truth.
He particularly took on Raila Odinga, the Azimio presidential candidate, saying he had agents in all the tallying centres where results were tallied and submitted to the Bomas of Kenya.
“You had agents at the CTC, we have the original (forms), you had agents at the NTC we have the original (forms). You have what was transmitted to the portal and all of them tally and you are saying your client’s votes were deducted. How,” he posed while making submissions in defence of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
He also dismissed assertions by Odinga that the commission declared William Ruto as the president-elect yet he did not attain the 50 per cent plus one vote as required by law.
Ruto was declared winner of the presidential election after garnering 7,176,141 votes (50.49 per cent), beating Odinga who managed 6,942,930 votes (48.85 per cent).
He told the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome that the entire election was “free, fair and verifiable and the winner was declared from the final tally of the votes.”
“I invite this court to ask the question of whether the 50 per cent plus 1 vote threshold was met and to that question, Your Ladyship, the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s answer would be ‘Get over it, it’s over!’,” and to the petitioner, “I think the simple answer to that would be, get over it.”
During Thursday’s proceedings, IEBC dismissed claims by petitioners in the presidential election that its system was hacked and crucial data altered.
Lawyer Eric Gumbo, for the electoral commission, said the claims that the system was hacked and some of the Forms 34As uploaded in favour of Ruto is laughable.
He challenged the petitioners to present an iota of evidence to prove their claim, insisting that all the forms had security features and can be matched with physical ones delivered by Returning Officers to the National Tallying centre.
“The entire network through which election results are transmitted is secured with double firewalls… for somebody to intercept, they must have information on voter turnout of that day of every polling station,” Gumbo told judges on day two of proceedings of a consolidated petition in the Supreme Court.
The consolidated petition of Azimio presidential candidate Odinga and eight others want the Supreme Court to nullify the presidential election results declared by IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati, on claims that they were manipulated in favour of the Deputy President.
The seven-judge bench is set to issue a verdict Monday.
