Presidential Petition: What Raila and Karua want from Supreme Court

Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his deputy Martha Karua on Monday filed a petition at the Supreme Court, seeking to challenge the 2022 presidential election results.

In their petition, Odinga (1st petitioner) and Karua (2nd petitioner) have named Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), its seven commissioners and Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto as respondents.

According to the first and second petitioner, the August 9 General Election was conducted in a manner that was in disregard of the constitution, rule of law and national values, principles of good governance, and the lawful authority of the Court.

This, they said, was to “premeditated unlawful and criminal subversion of the integrity and constitutionality of the electoral process in order to assist and secure a fraudulent result.”

The petitioners further accused IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati of having a willful intent to subvert the sovereign will of the people of Kenya and overthrow the constitutional order.

Odinga and Karua added that during Chebukati’s tenure at IEBC, a clear pattern has emerged showing his “inability to run the Commission in accordance with constitutional principles including observance of democratic values and principles; inability to operate within the collegiate framework as required under Article 138 of The Constitution and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act No. 9 of 2011.”

They said Chebukati has continued to act and operate outside the law despite a court decision during the presidential election petition of 2017, adding that he has constantly disagreed with fellow commissioners at the electoral body.

Odinga and Karua also state that the IEBC did not tally and verify the count before declaring the results of the Presidential Election, adding that there was an interference with the integrity, credibility and security of the election.

The Azimio leaders further state the declared presidential results lacked transparency, accountability, verifiability and efficiency.

They further showed that William Ruto, who is the 9th respondent in the petition, did not achieve the 50% plus one requirement to be declared the winner of the August 9 General Election and that Chebukati was constantly deleting and uploading different result declaration forms on the IEBC portal.

On Monday, the Azimio la Umoja brigade delivered a truck-full of evidence to show the malpractices, disregard of constitution and other irregularities they claim marred the presidential election.

Here are the reliefs that Raila Odinga and Martha Karua want the Supreme Court to grant;

• That IEBC and Chebukati avail all the material including electronic documents, devices and equipment for the Presidential Election within 48 hours.
• That IEBC and Chebukati do produce, avail and allow access for purposes of inspection of all the logs of any and all servers hosted by and/or on behalf of the commission.
• That the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) be summoned to produce statements, photographs, reports, equipment, laptops, phones, other gadgets and devices and any other materials connected or related to the conduct of the elections and found in possession of the Venezuelan nationals.
• That the DCI should also be directed to produce the laptop(s) retrieved and seized from UDA agent Koech Geoffrey Kipngosos and the report of the Forensic Analysis and Examination of the laptop(s) and contents.
• An order to be made for scrutiny of rejected and spoilt votes and a declaration issued.
• An order be made for forensic audit of Forms 34 A, B and C and all equipment, system and technology used by IEBC in the Presidential Election.
• The nullification of the election results announced by Chebukati and that IEBC should be directed to tally and verify the results, and declared Raila and Karua as the President and Deputy President-elect.
• A declaration be made that IEBC is incapable of presiding over and rendering a proper, credible, verifiable and valid presidential election.
• That the results tallied and verified after a scrutiny and forensic audit be considered valid outcome of the presidential election.
• That the August 9 Election was not held in accordance with the constitution, and should be declared invalid, null and void.
• A declaration that William Ruto was not validly declared President-elect since he did not meet the 50% plus 1 threshold and that Chebukati’s declaration is invalid, null and void and the gazette notice declaring him President-elect be quashed.
• An order be made directing IEBC to organise and conduct a fresh presidential election and that the decision of four IEBC commissioners who rejected election results be upheld.
• A declaration that Wafula Chebukati is unfit to hold public office and that IEBC, its chair and commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye committed election irregularities.

• IEBC, Chebukati and William Ruto to bear the cost of the presidential petition.