Orengo: Chebukati Gave Conflicting Reports On Voter Numbers Used In Presidential Election

Counsel James Orengo has questioned the voter registration figures that were used to declare President-elect William Ruto the winner of the August General Election.

Orengo raised a mathematical paradox in the way the total number of voters was recorded and announced during the presidential election petition hearing on Wednesday.

Orengo explained that the chairman of the electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, provided contradictory figures for the number of voters who cast ballots and those whose names appeared in the final results.

“On 9th August the first respondent (IEBC) announces that voter turnout was fairly low and was at an average of 52% of the registered number of voters,” stated Orengo.

“On 10th August, following the closure of polling, the 2nd respondent (Chebukati) announced that the voter turnout in the General Election was 65.4% equivalent to 14,466,779 voters.”

Orengo went on to say that when Chebukati announced the Form 34C results, which revealed a lower voter number of 14,213,037, there was a total shift in the numbers.

Regardless, Orengo stated that the votes cast for each of the four presidential candidates do not equal the total number of voters.

“Contrary to that, the final voter turnout captured and declared in the final results in Form 34C was 14,213,137 votes which is absurdly lower than earlier anticipated,” he argued.

“If you look at the results as announced and what is was in Form 34C as the turnout of voters, if you add the number of voters cast for each candidate, the figure that results is not what was stated but it is 14,213,037.”

As a result, he dismissed the 50 percent plus one threshold that saw Ruto win the election, claiming that the figures were based on a faulty calculation.

“I invite the court to calculate the number of votes garnered by each candidate, the numbers do not agree at all,” Orengo noted.

“The computation of the figure 50 plus one was based on a wrong computation on the total votes cast as announced by the IEBC chairman.”