'Inky picky ponky' light moment as lawyer Willis Otieno drags grandmother, niece in Supreme Court submission

A light moment was witnessed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday when advocate Willis Otieno used a children's nursery rhyme to reference how the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chair Wafula Chebukati allegedly did not go by the book when he announced the results of the August 9 presidential poll.

While making his submission before the Supreme Court bench on behalf of petitioner David Kariuki Ngari, Otieno referred to the said game, which he says his niece Mimi plays, to underscore how Chebukati allegedly made the announcement on a whim without having verified the results relayed to the national tallying centre.

Otieno specifically faulted the IEBC chair for the electoral body's decision to cease screening presidential results, as received from each constituency across the country, in the hours leading up to the announcement of the said results on August 15, 2022.  

"The whole day nobody knew who the winner was even the commissioners didn't know the results because tallying had stopped. I refer to the affidavit of the 11th respondent in which they have confirmed that they were concerned as to why the open displays stopped," said Otieno.

"Why are you not announcing the results per constituency as you were doing before that is what my grandmother calls 'Nairobi Karafuu' and my niece Mimi calls 'inky picky ponky paka melo disco'; because he called both of them and he was the only person who knew who the "disco" would land on. Is that how we intend to chose our national executive? we have reduced it to Mimi's childhood game."

The Supreme Court did not however share the same enthusiasm as Kenyans on Twitter with Justice Smokin Wanjala, who is part of the seven-judge bench, urging the advocate to refrain from making such comical submissions in their presence.

"I did give you brotherly advise, be careful, that language appears to be alien to this court," said Wanjala.

Wanjala was quick to change his line of argument following the court's interjection but he however stuck to his initial submission that IEBC conducted the presidential polls unconstitutionally.

"The lack of transparency in the tallying and verification of the results contrary to article 10 of the constitution completely eroded public trust in the constitution," he said.

"It left a very core exercise of a sovereign donation by the people to the whims of an individual not subject to any control and that my lord and ladies should not miss the attention of this court."