Inside Azimio bid to overturn declaration that Ruto won polls

Raila Odinga (right), Martha Karua and James Orengo present petition documents at the Supreme Court on August 22, 2022. [Samson Wire, Standard] The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) may for a second time be compelled to open the servers in a repeat 2017 scenario. In 2017, the Supreme Court annulled President Uhuru Kenyatta's win after the Wafula Chebukati led-commission failed to open servers for scrutiny. From the 72-page petition, the orders sought by Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua have adopted a similar approach that forced repeat presidential elections. They have gone for the jugular by asking the court to declare that any irregular votes should be struck off the final tally and a fresh computation on those found to be valid be done and considered as a valid outcome of the presidential election. The first strategy is an attack on the process and the second is going for scrutiny of the numbers. The first order being sought is to have IEBC, Chebukati and the commissioners avail all the materials including electronic documents, devices, and equipment for the presidential election within 48 hours. At the same time, they are asking that immediately upon filing of the petition, IEBC and Chebukati should avail and allow access for purposes of inspection of all logs of any and all servers hosted by and or on behalf of the IEBC and in respect to the presidential election within 48 hours. Raila and Karua are seeking a total of 24 orders from Chief Justice Martha Koome, her deputy Philomena Mwilu and Justices Mohamed Ibrahim, Prof Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung'u, Isaack Lenaola, and William Ouko. In the case, they want the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) summoned by the court to produce laptops retrieved from and seized from Geoffrey Kipngosos, an alleged United Democratic Alliance (UDA) political party agent, and further submit the report of the forensic analysis and the examination of the laptop and its contents. In the petition, the Azimio party flagbearers allege that DCI conducted a forensic image of the laptop to determine why it was being used at the national tallying center. According to them, the agents had agreed that no one would be allowed in at Bomas of Kenya with a laptop. Raila and Karua allege that forensic analysis showed that the laptop was connected to an IP address http://173.249.40.177/. This, they say is an external IP that does not belong to IEBC but forms 34A were being stored temporarily, downloaded, and then uploaded to the IEBC portal through an application for sharing data, SharePoint. Raila Odinga (right) and Martha Karua are also pushing to have new IEBC commissioners and chair. [File, Standard] "The temporary storage of forms 34A in an external address not belonging to the IEBC was to allow the interceptor to manipulate the forms 34A before re-uploading and or to upload different forms 34A," Raila and Karua claim in their court papers. They have also revisited the differences between DCI boss George Kinoti and Chebukati. According to them, two Venezuelan nationals Hose Grecorio and Joel Gustavo had more than just KIEMs kits stickers that were found on them. According to Azimio, Grecorrio was a super administrator of the IEBC systems and had all the rights to administer and manage all KIEMs kits that were in the field. This, they say, included removing, adding, deleting, and assigning rolls to the IEBC staff. "It was established that the users who have administrative rights in the system are 21, nineteen of whom are foreigners. Only two Kenyans have access to the IEBC system," read court papers. Further, they state that anyone outside Kenya could manipulate the results at the click of a button. They want the court to compel Kinoti to produce in court the report statements, photographs, equipment, phones and anything that is related to the Venezuelan nationals. Azimio team also want the court to order for scrutiny and forensic audit of all equipment, system, and technology used by the IEBC in the presidential election. The target includes KIEMs kits, servers, website, and portal. They are also asking the court to annul Chebukati's declaration that Deputy President William Ruto and his running mate Rigathi Gachagua are the winners of the election. From the prayers, Raila and Karua are also pushing to have new commissioners and chair. In the alternative to the declaration that Ruto and Gachagua did not win, they argue, the court should find that IEBC as presently constituted is incapable to carry out a credible election. The Supreme Court is also being asked to find that illegalities and irregularities in the process were so substantial that they affected the outcome. If the court will not declare a winner, they want an order that the August 9 presidential election was invalid, null, and void. At the same time, they want an order that Ruto did not meet the 50 per cent plus one vote and that he was not validly declared as the presidential elect on August 15, 2022. They are also seeking an order to quash the certificate issued to Ruto and subsequent gazettement by Chebukati. The Azimio team is asking the court to side with the four commissioners who disowned the results besides finding that Chebukati is unfit to hold public office. Additionally, they have sought orders that Chebukati, Boya Molu, Prof Abdi Guliye, and Ruto committed electoral offenses.

Inside Azimio bid to overturn declaration that Ruto won polls

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