NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22- The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has raised alarm over yet another attack on its personnel, this time by goons.
In a statement released on Monday evening, the Wafula Chebukati-led Commission said the goons were armed with crude weapons.
The targeted IEBC personnel were preparing for responses to the 9 presidential petitions filed at the Supreme Court on Monday.
Among the petition is that of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua.
“The commission condemns this act of hooliganism and intimidation, and calls upon the Inspector General of Police to bring to an end this blatant abuse of the rule of law,” reads the brief statement.
Chebukati has since August 9 decried of intimidation and profiling of IEBC officials.
On August 9, at the Bomas of Kenya, senior IEBC officials sustained injuries following violence that erupted minutes before William Ruto was declared the winner.
Embakasi East returning officer was abducted, tortured, and later found killed. His body was found dumped in Kajiado.
-The Odinga-Karua Petition-
Odinga, a veteran opposition leader who ran with the backing of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the ruling party, has rejected the outcome of the poll, branding it a “travesty.”
He narrowly lost to Ruto by around 230,000 votes — less than two percentage points.
The 77-year-old politician filed a physical copy of the petition with barely an hour to go before the court’s 2 pm (1100 GMT) deadline for accepting the case. An online copy was filed earlier in the day, according to a member of his legal team.
Hundreds of supporters cheered as dozens of boxes of evidence were unloaded from a truck outside the court.
“We have hopes that we have made a good case and will win,” Daniel Maanzo, a member of Odinga’s legal team, told AFP.
Although polling day passed off peacefully, the announcement of the results a week ago sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds and there are fears that a drawn-out dispute may lead to violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.
Since 2002, every presidential election in Kenya has triggered a dispute, with this year’s outcome also causing a rift within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) which oversaw the poll.
Odinga, who was making his fifth bid for the top job, said last week that the figures announced by the IEBC were “null and void and must be quashed by a court of law”.
According to a copy of the 72-page petition, Odinga’s team alleges that IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati failed to tally around 140,000 votes.
As a result, Ruto “did not meet the constitutional threshold of 50% plus 1 of the valid votes cast” — a requirement for him to be declared the winner.
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