NASA: Uhuru at war with Kenya since election results were nullified by court

NASA principal Raila Odinga at the Okoa Kenya office in Lavington. [Photo/Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

National Super Alliance (NASA) leaders have told off President Uhuru Kenyatta over his onslaught on the Supreme Court for nullifying the presidential election results. The Opposition told off the President for likening the nullification to a judicial coup, saying such a statement is akin to inviting anarchy.

NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga, his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka and Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula yesterday convened a press conference in Nairobi to respond to Uhuru’s assertion.

Unfortunate warpath

“Ever since the Supreme Court declared Uhuru’s Kenyatta’s so-called victory in the August polls as invalid, null and void, Uhuru has been on an unfortunate warpath with Kenya,” Raila said.

He noted that the attacks have intensified in the last two days since the Supreme Court delivered its detailed ruling on the presidential election.

“Uhuru has since gone berserk. Like a cornered boxer, he is swaying on his feet, rocking the country and its institutions with sudden flurry of desperate punches,” Raila said.

On Thursday, the President said the ruling by the Supreme Court was inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution that Kenyans passed in 2010.

“What happened is a judicial coup,” President Kenyatta said. “We have a constitution that has placed interests of wananchi above those of individuals; we have a Constitution that has curtailed the powers of the Presidency, so that the will of citizens would be respected,” he said.

However, yesterday Raila said Uhuru was bitter with the judges for pointing out massive fraud in the annulled polls while warning that any onslaught on the Judiciary can only lead to chaos.

“The signs are clear. Uhuru is putting Kenya on the same path that Yahya Jammeh put Gambia, Laurent Gbagbo put Ivory Coast and Blaise Compaore put Burkina Faso. He is seeking to cling to power by touting fake numbers.”

Raila added; “If Uhuru will not respect the Constitution and particularly the independent Judiciary that Kenyans fought so hard to bring to fruition, Kenyans are prepared to stop him.” NASA defended the judges, saying an audit ordered by the Supreme Court disclosed that up to 80 constituencies experienced anomalies problems with their results.

“Uhuru and Ruto call these anomalies - mere processes. The truth is that these anomalies had the net effect of having up to 5 million votes being interfered with, a majority being fraudulently given to Uhuru Kenyatta. It is on that fraud that he is basing his claim to victory and accusing the Judiciary of staging a coup against him.”

Raila added: “If the ruling by the Supreme Court was a coup, it could only be a counter-coup to stop the first one staged by a man who does not believe in free, fair and transparent elections.”

Irregularities

“Does it bother him that his agent at the Bomas of Kenya National Tallying Centre logged into the IEBC servers using a personal email account “[email protected]” contrary to IEBC’s own ICT User Policy? Has Uhuru Kenyatta ever cared to ask Davis Chirchir, his agent at Bomas, why he logged onto IEBC servers?”

Raila said Uhuru is yet to address the question of illegalities and irregularities that the courts found the IEBC to have committed, adding that silence can only mean that they (irregularities and illegalities) were designed to benefit him.

“Uhuru wants Kenyans to proceed to another fraudulent election as long as it is designed to give him victory. He wants ballot boxes to be opened as argued by judges he briefed on what to write. But he has not seen the need to press the IEBC to open its servers as had been decreed by the court.”