Supreme Court Admits Raila’s Petition Seeking Nullification of Ruto's Victory

The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a petition filed by Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua challenging William Ruto’s victory in the August 9th presidential election.

Nation reports that Odinga and Karua are seeking 23 reliefs among them an order for inspection of IEBC servers, and scrutiny of the rejected and spoilt votes.

They are further seeking an order for scrutiny and forensic audit of the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) kits, IEBC portal, and the presidential election forms (forms 34A, 34B and 34C).

The co-petitioners also want the apex court to issue an order invalidating Ruto’s victory and compelling the electoral commission to organize a fresh presidential election in strict conformity with the Constitution and election laws. They say that IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati should not preside over the fresh election.

In addition, Odinga and Karua are seeking an order to summon Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti to produce statements, photographs, reports, equipment, laptops, phones and any other material connected/related to the conduct of the elections and found in possession of the three Venezuela nationals arrested at JKIA last month.

They also want Kinoti compelled to produce a laptop(s) allegedly seized from Koech Geofrey Kipngosos, an agent of the UDA party and a report on the forensic analysis and examination of the laptop(s) and content.

One of Odinga’s lawyers James Orengo told journalists that their petition is seeking both a re-run and a retallying of votes.

 “I have participated in many petitions but his one, I can tell you, is a bombshell and we’ve got so many smoking guns. The conclusion is that we are going to have a determination in favor of Raila Odinga,” he said after the filing of the petition on Monday.

“We think that the election amounted to a civilian coup… we are very confident; we’ve got many smoking guns and I think at the conclusion we’re going to have determination favor of Raila Odinga.”