Kenyan opposition leader takes ‘election rigging’ case to court
NAIROBI: The hearing of a landmark case challenging the re-election of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta opened yesterday after a series of preliminary rulings on the evidence presented by Raila Odinga, the opposition presidential candidate who is challenging the poll results.
The seven-member bench at the Supreme Court was due to rule on Odinga’s request for opening the servers of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for inspection, before listening to the lawyer representing Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka in court.
Odinga wants the Supreme Court to nullify the results of the presidential elections held on August 8, saying the country’s electoral body, the IEBC, failed to abide by the laws and regulations guiding its conduct.
The Supreme Court is constitutionally mandated to rule by Friday on whether the polls were lawfully conducted or to nullify and call for fresh presidential elections within 60 days, according to the 2010 Constitution.
Both the electoral body and President Kenyatta have objected to Odinga’s application to be granted access to the information on the grounds that it not only jeopardises the integrity of the systems but it is impractical given the time constraints the court is facing.
They have also accused Odinga of seeking to secure evidence to support his contention that President Kenyatta did not legitimately win re-election.
The opposition leader claims Kenyatta’s Jubilee party hacked the results transmission system and insists an audit would expose who won the vote.
In his court papers he says that Kenyatta’s victory was based on a mathematical formula and a fixed algorithm factor.
“It is in light of the foregoing that I am advised by my advocates on record, and believe the same to be true, that only a system audit of all the commission’s infrastructure can answer the many questions and gaps surrounding why what was supposed to be a seamless system of integration of voter registration, voter identification and results transmission, failed at the tail end,” Odinga says.
Lawyers and judges have been pressed for time, given that a ruling in the case is required within 14 days of a presidential election being held.
Without the petition, President Kenyatta would have been sworn in on August 29.
Kenya’s main opposition, the National Super Alliance (Nasa), which Odinga represents, wants the election results nullified because the IEBC failed to conduct a transparent and verifiable process.
Kenyatta was announced the winner of the polls on August 11, with 54% of the votes cast against Odinga’s 44% of the votes.