Supreme Court receives 8 petitions challenging Ruto’s win in Presidential election

Azimio Presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his deputy Martha Karua filed a petition at the supreme court, challenging the declaration of President-elect William Ruto as the winner in the August 9 polls.

Raila and Karua, in a case against IEBC, its chairperson Wafula Chebukati, commissioners and William Ruto have asked the court to declare the Presidential Election results announced on August 15 null and void.

In a separate petition, Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah also dismissed the results of the Presidential election announced by IEBC, stating that no candidate achieved the 50% plus one threshold stipulated in the constitution.

Omtatah says that the math does not add up and that the final results were not based on the absolute total number of votes cast and did not factor in some 140, 028 votes which he says would alter the outcome of the final results and particularly the constitutional 50%+1 threshold.

The Busia Senator’s arithmetic in the petition placed all candidates below the 50 percent mark with William Ruto scoring 49.9 percent and Raila Odinga 48.3 percent.

The Supreme Court also received a petition from renowned public interest litigant Khelef Khalifa, seeking the nullification of the presidential election results.

Khalifa was prominent in the 2017 election petition that saw the Supreme Court nullify the presidential election results.

He now wants the Supreme Court to draw the same sword against this year's election which he claims was marred by massive irregularities.

Khalifa also wants the court to order an audit of all the electoral technology deployed in the august election and for all petitioners to be granted access to the KIEMS kits claiming infiltration which affected the credibility of the election.

After failing to secure clearance to run for president, gospel artist Reuben Kigame has also filed a petition asking the supreme court to declare the nomination and clearance of the four presidential candidates as null and void.

The first petition of the day was by one voter named John Njoroge Kamau, who sought the courts clarification on whether the IEBC chairman erred in excluding other commissioners in the final tallying.

He also wanted the seven-judge bench to declare that the IEBC chair had committed election related irregularities and barred from overseeing another election as national returning officer.

Also presenting their prayers at the registry was a lobby group Youth Advocacy Africa who also called for the nullification of the presidential election saying they had evidence that there was manipulation of the poll outcome to ensure a candidate achieved the 50%+1 threshold.

Another lobby group that filed a petition at the supreme court comprised of Juliah Nyokabi Chege, Joseph Mutua Ndonga and Simon Mwaura Njenga and another by a voter named David Kariuki Ngari.