NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 5 — The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed portal infiltration claims in a petition challenging President-Elect William Ruto’s win as ‘hot air’ having fallen acutely short of the evidentiary threshold.
The court singled out submission by lawyer Julie Soweto in which Raila Odinga’s legal team claimed a Venezuelan National named Jose Camargo interfered with the public portal during the August 9 polls.
In a unanimous decision delivered by Chief Justice Martha Koome on Monday, the seven-judge bench said that the scrutiny orders by the court showed that there were not any security breaches in the IEBC system.
“We turn to form 34 A for Gacharaigu Primary School which was sensationally presented by Madam Julie Soweto to show that one Jose Camargo accessed the RTS and interfered with the results contained therein, this also turned out to be no more than hot air and we were taken on a wild goose chase that yielded nothing of value,” Koome said.
The Chief Justice said went forward to note that there was no credible proof that unauthorized persons accessed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) servers before and after the August 9 polls.
The court also found no credible evidence that Forms 34A were being downloaded and reuploaded after manipulation as was adduced by the petitioners.
The court also dismissed the affidavit sworn by John Githongo which the bench noted contained forgeries observing that it contained “no more than incredible hearsay evidence.”
“No credible evidence was presented to prove the allegations that forms 34A were frequently altered by a group situated in Karen under the direction of a person named in the affidavit,” the Chief Justice said.
Koome warned lawyers against presenting false evidence in court saying it amounts to an offense.
