Former Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga and his Azimio la Umoja coalition have filed their petition against the declaration of William Ruto as the President-Elect of Kenya.
Ruto was declared the winner of the hotly contested race by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission a week ago. He won the race with 7,176,141 votes representing 50.49 per cent of the vote, ahead of his main challenger Raila Odinga who polled 6,942,930 representing 48.85 per cent of the vote.
But Odinga challenged the outcome of the exercise and is now hoping to turn it around through a court Battle. He presented before the courts, up to 39 boxes of petition papers which were submitted to the Supreme Court at Milimani, Nairobi at exactly 1.45 pm, beating the 2.00 pm deadline.
The Azimio la Umoja-Kenya One alliance leader had up to this Monday afternoon to file his petition. Among the issues, Raila cites lack of transparency in the election declaration process, which claim was given credence by the four commissioners of IEBC who stormed out of the national tally centre saying they could no longer be part of the declaration.
Earlier in the day thousands of his supporters filled the streets of Nairobi surrounding the Supreme Court before Odinga’s team arrived ready to file the petition. They will now have to wait for 14 days for the outcome of the petition which is due to be heard by the seven judges of the Supreme Court until September 5, as provided for in the constitution.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati is the first respondent, joined by the Commission and Dr Ruto. Soon after filing the petition, Odinga’s lead counsel, James Orengo said they are holding Chebukati personally responsible for manipulating the results. Orengo says other pieces of evidence include how the IT system and equipment were corrupt to influence the result, adding that this was the most corrupt election he had seen.
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Phillip Murgor, Pheroze Nowrojee, a seasoned constitutional and human rights lawyer, and James Orengo, the Siaya governor-elect are the top councils for Odinga, while the Kenya Kwanza Alliance’s Dr Ruto has Uhuru Kenyatta’s former lawyer Fred Ngatia and Ahmednassir Abdullahi as the lead counsels.
On what Azimio expects from the court, Orengo said the orders they are seeking from the court include a recount which could show who the true winner is, and annulling the election which would lead to a fresh election, but without Chebukati at the Commission
