MP’s court scheme to force Raila into poll

The fear of a prolonged crisis if NASA leader Raila Odinga boycotts the October 26 poll is behind a fresh petition to force him on the ballot.

The petition filed in court by Pokot South MP David Pkosin earlier this week is pointer to growing appreciation, within Jubilee rank and file, of the full implication of NASA boycott.

Subtly, it appreciates NASA’s capacity to disrupt the election in counties and constituencies and calls attention to this fact.

In the petition now certified urgent and coming up for hearing tomorrow, the second-term MP is seeking the court’s declaration that both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila must participate in the repeat election.

He has also sought 10 other orders whose sum is to seal alleged loopholes through which NASA could get away with the boycott.

Own man

“The petition is the only way out of this mess. I hope that the prayers we are seeking are granted because we are walking into a trap, collectively. In this, I am my own man. I am out to save this country,” Mr Pkosin told Sunday Standard.

In the petition, believed to have blessings of Jubilee honchos, Pkosin argues that NASA has given every indication that it plans to boycott, subvert or impede the poll.

He wants this declared unlawful upfront.

As to the threats of the boycott, he wants them declared contemptuous of the Supreme Court decision. To further pull NASA along to the election, Pkosin has made another intriguing prayer:

“That a declaration be issued to declare that the boycott, subversion or failure to conduct the fresh presidential election on October 26, 2017 in all or some of Kenya’s 290 Constituencies and 47 counties shall not negate, affect or otherwise compromise the validity of the fresh presidential elections.”

Boycott threats

Also in the prayers is call on the judges to automatically render the nomination of Raila null and void by declaring the boycott threats treasonous.

The MP wants the court to empower the IEBC to assess, at the close of the campaign period, the willingness of the candidates to go the whole hog.

“I can tell where we are heading. I took the onus to avert this... I have hired my lawyer at my own cost, for the benefit of the country,” the MP wryly replied to concerns he was “sponsored” to file the petition.