Fate of Presidential petition; Supreme Court renders verdict.
The supreme court court of Kenya has today on 5th September 2022, the fate of presidential petition.
Chief Justice has outlined that this is not the first time an election is being petition in Kenya.
She further recalled that independent electoral and boundaries commission on 15th August named William Ruto as the president elect with a score of 50.48% while Raila Odinga came in second with a total of 48.85% of the total votes.
Raila declared the results null and void therefore initiating a presidential petition.
Technology used
CJ Martha Koome outlined that the KIEMS kits technology that adopted by the Independent electoral and boundaries commission was doubted by several petitioners.
The petitioners stated that the IEBC servers were hacked by Venezuelan who goes by the name Jose Camargo.
Also read The 3 venezuelans had access to IEBC systems 5 months before polls
Martha refuted the claims and further dismissed the affidavit by John Githongo.
Koome stated that where the KIEMS kits failed, Manual voting was allowed. She added that the scrutiny report also did not reveal any IEBC server breaching, by any unauthorized personnel.
Chebukati’s dismissal
Justice Koome stated that the accusations revealed by Justus Nyang’aya were of no value.
Koome also said, In the courts view, the petitioners failed to produce credible evidence. No concrete evidence implicated that the IEBC chair was part of the scheme to alter results or add votes in favor of one candidate.
Koome added that IEBC results in the portal were not interfered with by anyone and the court confirmed authenticity of presidential results.
However, The chair does not have the mandate to verify the results alone, it is a duty of the commissioners as a body.
Postponement of results in Counties and wards
She also addressed the postponement of elections in counties and wards; IEBC had a genuine reason which though could have been avoided and it was not a political strategy as petitioners claimed.
Koome stated that regardless of the split , IEBC conducted votes in accordance to article 138 3C of the constitution.
Verdict
Chief justice Martha Koome has therefore declared the 2022 presidential elections as valid under the constitution.