Supreme Court: Nine Issues to be determined in the Presidential Petition

The Supreme Court of Kenya on Tuesday kicked off the Pre-Trial Conference of the Presidential Election Petition to formulate timelines, issues to be discussed and determined in the main trial. 

The Conference, held at the apex courts sub-registry at the Milimani Law Courts, comes eight days after petitions challenging the Presidential elections results were filed.

At the beginning of the activity, the Supreme Court dismissed a number of petitions and also allocated time to each party to address the court.

The Supreme Court has now issued a draft of issues for determination in the Presidential Election Petition, and that will be considered by the parties in the Pre-Trial Conference.

1. Whether the technology deployed by the IEBC for the conduct of the 2022 general elections met the standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results.

2. Whether there was interference with the uploading and transmission of Forms 34A from the polling stations to the IEBC Public Portal.

3. Whether there was a difference between Forms 34A uploaded on the IEBC Public Portal and the Forms 34A received at the National Tallying Centre, and Forms 34A issued to the Agents at the Polling Stations.

4. Whether the postponement of Gubernatorial Elections in Kakamega and Mombasa Counties, Parliamentary elections in Kitui Rural, Kacheliba Rongai and Pokot South Constituencies and electoral wards in Nyaki West in North Imenti Constituency and Kwa Njenga in Embakasi South Constituency resulted in voter suppression.

5. Whether there were unexplainable discrepancies between the votes cast for presidential candidates and other elective positions.

6. Whether the IEBC carried out the verification, tallying, and declaration of results in accordance with Article 138 (3) (c) and 138 (10) of the Constitution.

7. Whether the declared President-elect attained 50%+1 vote of all the votes cast in accordance with Article 138 (4) of the Constitution.

8. Whether there were irregularities and illegalities of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the Presidential Election.

9. What reliefs and orders can the Court grant or issue?