Judgment day: Who will get nod this time after a fierce battle?

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President-elect William Ruto during a past event in Kisumu County. [DPPS] Kenyans will today know if they will have a new president sworn in before the end of the month or will go back to the ballot in early November as Supreme Court Judges give their verdict. The seven-judge bench will either reject the nine petitions and uphold the election of President-Elect William Ruto as the fifth president or side with the petitioners and order for a repeat presidential election. Should the Supreme Court Judges led by Chief Justice Martha Koome, her deputy Philomena Mwilu, and Justices Smokin Wanjala, Isaac Lenaola, Njoki Ndung'u, William Ouko, and Mohamed Ibrahim unanimously or by majority side with the nine petitioners then the country will be headed for a repeat election before November 4. The Supreme Court is out to make a determination on seven key issues which include 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. They will also be seeking to determine if there was interference with the uploading and transmission of Forms 34A from the polling stations to the IEBC Public Portal and if 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. Other issues on the table for the Judges are to rule on whether the postponement of Governor elections in Kakamega and Mombasa counties, Parliamentary elections in Kitui Rural, Kacheliba Rongai, and Pokot South Constituencies suppressed the presidential vote, and if there were unexplainable discrepancies between the votes cast for presidential candidates and other elective positions. 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, if the declared President-elect attained 50%+1 vote of all the votes cast in accordance with Article 138 (4) of the Constitution and whether there were irregularities and illegalities of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the Presidential Election. The bench which spent most of their Saturday and yesterday writing their judgment will either agree unanimously in a moderation meeting on Monday morning according to a source at the Judiciary, one each read their ruling on the matter. Should they uphold the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati's declaration of Ruto as the winner of the presidential election, then the verdict will trigger a series of meetings by the Assumption of Office committee to plan a swearing-in that could happen on September 13. Azimio La Umoja Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga in his rejoinder to responses made by IEBC and President-elect denied claims that he is a sore loser who has refused to accept an outcome of an election stating that his quest to challenge the Presidential election was to protect the rights of the people whose election had been stolen. Lawyer James Orengo appearing for Raila in the petition said what IEBC had done was trying to put in place a government not anticipated in the Constitution and that those in charge of the election had acted with impunity as they are above the law and taken the electoral commission as personal property to achieve some ulterior motives. "The manner in which IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati has been running a one-man show as has been confirmed by four commissioners who have disowned the results that he announced in conformity with the constitutional requirements for a credible election, the commission cannot say it did a good job when its senior officials have been at loggerheads," said Orengo. Lawyers Fred Ngatia appearing for Ruto and Githu Muigai for IEBC told the Supreme Court that there will be a constitutional crisis if the Presidential election was nullified and the IEBC Chairman was found unsuitable to conduct the Presidential election. But lawyer Otiende Amollo appearing for Raila in the petition claimed that the voter turnout was being manipulated to achieve a certain figure for Ruto to be declared President and that the constitution was clear that the denominator for calculating the percentage of voter turnout was a total number of registered voters. Advocate Mahat Somane of IEBC argued that the voter turnout was 64.6 per cent as captured in the KIEMS kits and that the commission does not look at the turnout as a measure to determine the percentage in the presidential election while Busia Senator-Elect Okiya Omtatah argued that Chebukati had publicly declared that the voter turnout was 65.4 percent with the figure expected to go higher once the voters identified manually were factored. On Sunday, August 8, traffic police closed some roads leading to Milimani Courts where the ruling is expected. "The road shall be closed after we get directive from Supreme Court which will be two hours before the time given out by Supreme Court. Law Courts will be closed at Kenyatta Avenue/ Valley road Junction (NSSF). Only vehicles heading to the court will be allowed. All other motorists are advised to use Valley Road. Cathedral road/Haile Selassie Avenue junction will be closed and Motorists are advised to use the alternative routes of Haile Selassie/Ngong Road," read the statement by Vitalis Otieno Officer Commanding Traffic Nairobi Area.

Judgment day: Who will get nod this time after a fierce battle?

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