Roads Closed as Focus Shifts to The Supreme Decision
By Tobby Otum
The apex court is faced with a litmus test on how it handles the controversial presidential petition filed by Azimio coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate who is Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua in its judgment on Monday.
The focus will be whether President elect William Ruto’s victory will be upheld after the general election which was marred by irregularities and chaos and divisions among the IEBC commissioners.
During the last day of submissions at the supreme court in Nairobi lawyer Willis Otieno poked holes on Ruto’s victory through telling the court that the KPMG audit report has confirmed fourteen unauthorised users among the Embakasi South clerks in Nairobi.
He took a swipe at the IEBC pointing out that the presidential results tally is the work of the commissioners and not members of the public.
“It’s the duty of the IEBC commissioners to vet and tally the presidential results at the end of the voting exercise,” he pointed out.
The counsel in the petition challenging Ruto’s election told the court the core function of the commissioners can’t be carried out by the electoral body secretariat alone.
Willis told the day’s proceedings that the tampering with the IEBC servers and the KIEMS kits is like a sexual offence which should be dealt with in a court of law.
He added the Ruto’s team was unable to show that he had marshaled the threshold to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta on conclusion of the poll.
“To make matters worse Ruto’s team was struggling to convince the court of impossibilities,” he pointed out.
The counsel blasted the Ruto team with “Kizungu mingi” where there was lack of supporting evidence that Ruto met the threshold to be declared winner.
Willis insisted Ruto lacked the threshold of 50-plus one to win the controversial polls.