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Presidential Petition: What Raila And Karua Want From Supreme Court

by Esther Oyugi August 22, 2022, 2:37 pm 1.2k Views

Raila Odinga, a presidential candidate for the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition, and his running mate Martha Karua submitted a plea to the Supreme Court on Monday in an effort to overturn the results of the 2022 election.

Odinga, the first petitioner, and Karua, the second petitioner, have cited the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), its seven commissioners, and William Ruto, a candidate for president of Kenya Kwanza, as respondents in their petition.

The constitution, the rule of law and national values, the rules of good governance, and the legitimate authority of the Court, in the opinion of the first and second petitioners, were all violated during the conduct of the general election on August 9.

This, they said, was to “premeditated unlawful and criminal subversion of the integrity and constitutionality of the electoral process in order to assist and secure a fraudulent result.”

The petitioners also charged the chairman of the IEBC, Wafula Chebukati, with deliberately intending to undermine Kenyans’ right to self-determination and topple the constitutional system.

Odinga and Karua continued by saying that Chebukati’s time at the IEBC has demonstrated a clear pattern of his “inability to run the Commission in accordance with constitutional principles, including observance of democratic values and principles; inability to operate within the collegiate framework as required by Article 138 of The Constitution and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act No. 9 of 2011.”

They added that despite a court ruling made during the presidential election petition of 2017, Chebukati has persisted in acting and operating illegally, and that he frequently disagrees with other commissioners at the electoral authority.

In addition, Odinga and Karua claim that there was interference with the election’s credibility, integrity, and security since the IEBC failed to verify the results before proclaiming them.

The leaders of Azimio further claim that the stated presidential results lacked accountability, openness, verifiability, and efficiency.

Additionally, they demonstrated that Chebukati was consistently deleting and uploading various result declaration forms on the IEBC webpage and that William Ruto, the petition’s ninth respondent, did not meet the 50% plus one criterion to be proclaimed the election’s victor.

The Azimio la Umoja battalion submitted a truckload of evidence on Monday to demonstrate the violations of the constitution, malpractices, and other irregularities they claim marred the presidential election.

Here is are the reliefs that Raila Odinga and Martha Karua want the Supreme Court to grant;

That IEBC and Chebukati avail all the material including electronic documents, devices and equipment for the Presidential Election within 48 hours.
That IEBC and Chebukati do produce, avail and allow access for purposes of inspection of all the logs of any and all servers hosted by and/or on behalf of the commission.
That the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) be summoned to produce statements, photographs, reports, equipment, laptops, phones, other gadgets and devices and any other materials connected or related to the conduct of the elections and found in possession of the Venezuelan nationals.
That the DCI should also be directed to produce the laptop(s) retrieved and seized from UDA agent Koech Geoffrey Kipngosos and the report of the Forensic Analysis and Examination of the laptop(s) and contents.
An order to be made for scrutiny of rejected and spoilt votes and a declaration issued.
An order be made for forensic audit of Forms 34 A, B and C and all equipment, system and technology used by IEBC in the Presidential Election.
The nullification of the election results announced by Chebukati and that IEBC should be directed to tally and verify the results, and declared Raila and Karua as the President and Deputy President-elect.
A declaration be made that IEBC is incapable of presiding over and rendering a proper, credible, verifiable and valid presidential election.
That the results tallied and verified after a scrutiny and forensic audit be considered valid outcome of the presidential election.
That the August 9 Election was not held in accordance with the constitution, and should be declared invalid, null and void.
A declaration that William Ruto was not validly declared President-elect since he did not meet the 50% plus 1 threshold and that Chebukati’s declaration is invalid, null and void and the gazette notice declaring him President-elect be quashed.
An order be made directing IEBC to organise and conduct a fresh presidential election and that the decision of four IEBC commissioners who rejected election results be upheld.
A declaration that Wafula Chebukati is unfit to hold public office and that IEBC, its chair and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye committed election irregularities.