Supreme Court of Kenya is currently listening to presidential petition 2022. Various learned “friends” or lawyers are up with their arguments in support and against the 2022 presidential election results.
On 17th August 2022 and 2 days after IEBC chair, Wafula Chebukati announced William Ruto as the 5th president, Raila Odinga rejected the results. Raila was amongst the four presidential candidates in 2022 general election.
Raila Amollo Odinga was running for the presidential sit for the 5th time without success. The Azimio leader on 15th August 2022 lost election to William Ruto, the current deputy president. Raila then rejected the election results, terming them null and void.
Raila’s Appeal
Raila termed the presidential results fake following several mishaps observed in the election conduct, tallying, and uploading of final 34 A forms on the IEBC portals. On 31st August 2022, the highest court in Kenya, Supreme began hearing the petition cases.
Raila sued IEBC and Ruto for fake presidential election results. Although the court received more than 10 petition cases, the judges only approved seven cases for hearing. The court termed Raila’s case as the primary so the hearing began by hearing their petition arguments.
So far, Azimio lawyers including Githu Muigai, James Orengo, Soweto, Mwangi, and Mugor has laid out their grievances.
Court Mandates
The Supreme Court of Kenya has until Monday 5th September 2022 to deliver the final decision. On 5th court could nullify the election results or approve Ruto as the 5th president. If Ruto is approved as the president, he will be sworn in on 17th September. However, Should the court nullify the election, Kenyans will have to go for a rerun on 5 November to elect a new president.
Votes Recount
Consecutively, Azimio party representatives are currently recounting the votes from 15 voting stations said to have counting mistakes. On 30th August 2022, the Supreme court allowed Azimio party to access the said votes to reconfirm the posted results in forodha house. The court however gave them under supervised access. Thus, the recount is captured live by media and in presence of IEBC, court, and UDA representatives amongst other interested parties.
According to Dennis Itumbi, the recount has not found any inconsistencies in the tallying. Political analysist mention that the court will have an easy decision should the recount find zero miscounts. However, should there be miscount cases, the court will need to look into more issues than tallying to make a fair decision.
Distribution of Hours
The supreme court has evenly divided the few hours available amongst major petition parties. Raila, IEBC, and UDA have been given 6 hours each to air their arguments. From the Raila’s side, James Orengo opened the hearing by terming vote counting as the major problem that resulted to Raila’s defeat.
The court will have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to hear the various cases.
Check Raila’s claims against the election results: http://www.biography.co.ke/railas-last-card-to-push-for-a-runoff/
