Poll riddled with discrepancies, say litigants

NASA leader Raila Odinga

NASA leaders Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka said they would prove that their victory was stolen and that the August 8 General Election was not free and fair.

In a 17-page affidavit to support their petition at the Supreme Court, the NASA presidential candidate and his running mate stated that the result announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) did not reflect the will of the people.

“The presidential election was riddled with procedural irregularities and massive numerical discrepancies aimed at robbing us victory. The cumulative degree of election fraud does not give any credibility to the results announced by IEBC,” they noted in the affidavit.

They accused President Uhuru Kenyatta and Jubilee Party leaders of taking advantage of their positions to intimidate, bribe and use undue influence to sway voters, and therefore want the Supreme Court to find them guilty of committing an election offence. They cited an instance in Makueni on August 2 where President Kenyatta was reportedly quoted threatening chiefs with dire consequences for failing to support his re-election bid.

“Despite clear provisions of the Public Officer Ethics Act, the President used Cabinet Secretaries and State Officers to campaign for him and bribe voters. They openly made directives to their juniors to intimidate them and campaign for Kenyatta.”

The two also took issue with the President’s launch of state projects during campaigns, and said this was in violation of the Constitution and gave Jubilee an unfair advantage over them.

Well-orchestrated scheme

The petitioners argued that the President violated Section 14 of the Elections Act by sponsoring publications and advertising of the government’s achievements within the last five years and noted that this swayed some voters.

It is probable that a substantial number of voters were influenced through use of public resources, the petitioners indicated. Furthermore, they argued that   discrepancies in the tallied results of presidential and other elective positions showed that there was no credible, verifiable and accountable election as prescribed by law.

“From our review of the results, I have discovered substantial, systematic, glaring and qualitative anomalies that put to question the credibility of the results. They are totally incompatible with established electoral principles.” The NASA duo stated that international observers who had initially lauded the electoral process have now expressed concern over the emerging irregularities and want the Supreme Court to consider their input in their verdict.

The IEBC was accused of deliberately failing to put in place credible systems as directed by the Court of Appeal. The petitioners claimed that the murder of the electoral agency’s ICT director Chris Musando was the culmination of a well-orchestrated scheme to interfere with the electronic voting system.

“Indeed, it is our belief that the electronic system was compromised by unauthorised third parties and data manipulated and unlawfully transmitted to the constituency and national tallying centres.”

They argued that two days before the elections, the IEBC announced that it would not be able to announce results from more than 11,000 polling stations because they were out of range for 3G and 4G network. This, they said, compromised NASA’s ability to monitor the results.