“No Clear Discrepancies Proved”, Supreme Court Rules In Kenya Election Challenge Case

By Landing Ceesay

The Supreme Court of Kenya ruled that ‘no clear discrepancies [have been] proved’ in the presidential election petitions by opposition Raila Odinga’s with colleagues, and upheld IEBC announced results.

“The Presidential Election Petitions as Consolidated are hereby dismissed. The election of William Ruto (is) upheld. This is an abridged version of the judgement, (and the) full judgement will be out in 21 days,” said the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Martha Koome in her televised ruling on Citizen TV.

The former Prime Minister and now opposition leader, Raila Odinga and seven others filed a petition to the country’s Supreme Court seeking the cancellation of the 9^th August Presidential election results alleging widespread fraud.

As reported by NTV Kenya, Raila Odinga and his close associates referred to as the petitioners alleged that the electoral commission’s chairman, Wafula Chebukati has staged a civilian coup.

The veteran politician and his close associates alleged that election technology was hacked, and votes were taken away from him (Mr. Odinga) and given to the Deputy President, Mr. Ruto.

In today’s ruling, the Kenyan Chief Justice, Martha Koome said last month’s election was free, fair, transparent, and credible.

The Supreme Court ruled that the petitioners had presented no credible evidence to annul the presidential results and stated that the petitions lack merit.

On whether or not the technology deployed by the electoral commission met the standards of integrity, verifiability, and transparency to guarantee the credibility of election results, the Supreme Court maintained that the commission had met the standards.

Kenya’s Court also ruled that the petitioners provided no evidence on whether there was interference of Form 34As from the polling station to the commission’s headquarters as alleged.

The Court further ruled that the petitioners did not provide any credible evidence to ascertain that there were differences between Form 34A on the portal, Form 34A at the National Tallying Centre, and Form 34A with the agents at the polling station.

The Kenyan Supreme Court also ruled that no substantial discrepancy was explained, and no discrepancies were found to ascertain the petitioners’ claim that there were unexplained discrepancies between votes cast for presidential candidates and other elective posts.

The court ruled that the petitioners did not provide a watertight case on whether the President-elect William Ruto got 50% + 1, and rounding off by IEBC was correct. 

NTV Kenya reported that the Kenyan Supreme Court had identified 9 major issues including reliefs that should be given to the court, adding that the CJ, Martha Koome, while reading the judgment dismissed all of them in support of IEBC, and upheld Ruto’s win.

This year’s election passed peacefully and the now official election of William Ruto would see him get sworn-in on Tuesday next week as the 5^th President of the Republic Kenya, following independence on 12^th December 1963.

The current Deputy President, William Ruto and would-be 5^th President of Kenya when sworn-in on 13^th September joining the list of Jomo Kenyatta (1^st President), Daniel Arap Moi (2^nd President), Mwai Kibaki (3^rd President), and the outgoing President, Uhuru Kenyatta (4^th President)  of the East African nation.

Raila Odinga came second with 48.85 person of the votes (6,942,930 votes), while his main rival, Deputy President, William Ruto won with 50.49 percent of the votes (7,176,121 votes), according to Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC).