NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 5- President-elect William Ruto’s win has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Kenya, in a unanimous decision.
The verdict was issued by Chief Justice Martha Koome on behalf of the 7-Judge bench.
The court in dismissing several petitions among them by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga also called out some advocates for presenting fraudulent evidence.
The chief justice said there was no evidence that election forms in the online results portal were changed from the original printed forms.
Justice Koome, in a stinging criticism of some of those who presented affidavits, warned lawyers against presenting misleading or fabricated evidence.
In one case she said that the evidence proved to be “hot air” and sent the court on “a wild goose chase”.
The court also found that there was no evidence that anyone accessed the results transmission system to tamper with the results. She says the commission sufficiently explained how the system captured the results forms.
The Chief Justice added that the argument that the integrity of the public portal was compromised was disproved.
The judges were not persuaded by the allegation that the technology failed the test of integrity, verifiability, security, and transparency, the chief justice said.
The Supreme Court was also satisfied that the electoral commission had the power to postpone the elections in parts of the country among them Kakamega and Mombasa Counties.
The court also said that there was no single document produced by Odinga’s team that there was ballot stuffing.
“Are we to nullify an election on the basis of a last-minute rapture the details of which remain scanty? In the absence of any evidence of a violation of the constitution and electoral laws, can we overturn the election? This we cannot do! The current dysfunctionality at the commission did not affect the conduct of the 2022 election,” CJ Koome said.
The Supreme Court found that the power to verify and tally presidential election results vests not in the chairperson but in the commission.
In line with earlier court decisions – the chairperson cannot arrogate to himself the power to verify and tally the results to the exclusion of others.
The Supreme Court further found that petitioners did not provide a watertight case for the nullification of results on the basis that the 50 percent-plus-one constitutional threshold for an outright win was not met.
It says that President-elect Ruto did get more than 50 percent plus one votes.
More to follow…
Want to send us a story? Contact Shahidi News Tel: +254115512797 (Mobile & WhatsApp)
