Kenyan Supreme Court to begin full hearing of presidential election petition

15 Novembre 2017

Nairobi, Kenya, November 15  (Infosplusgabon) - The Supreme Court in Kenya is set on Wednesday to begin the full hearing a petition challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election during last month's repeat Presidential election before delivering a ruling within days.

Earlier, the Court delivered a ruling excluding the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA), whose leaders, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, withdrew from the Presidential election days to the poll, citing failure by the electoral body to initiate reforms to make the vote transparent.

The ruling excluding the alliance from the presidential election petition also means neither the petitioners in the case nor President Kenyatta's lawyers, responding, would mention Odinga and Musyoka during the hearing, said Paul Mwangi, a lawyer representing NASA.

The Supreme Court held a marathon session on Monday, to finalise several applications by those seeking to join the election petition.

Supreme Court President Justice David Maraga also delivered a ruling declining the Attorney-General Githu Muigai's request to be admitted as a friend of the Court.

Justice Maraga said the decision to decline the Attorney-General's request was informed by the fact he planned to make similar observations as those already made by parties in Court.

Two human rights activists Njonjo Mue and Mohamed Khalifa, representing a coalition of civil society bodies, want the election of President Kenyatta nullified on the grounds the election violated the Constitutional principle of Universal Suffrage because nearly 12 million voters did not participate in electing the President.

At least 7.5 million people are believed to have taken part in the 26 October repeat presidential elections.

However, the petitioners have claimed that a number of voters were not identified using biological features and have requested the Court to compel the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission  (IEBC) to provide forms filled by those not identified biometrically.

The petitioners also argue that the IEBC was not acting independently during the elections and has requested the Court to compel the elections body to produce records of its meetings between 1 September to 31 October 2017.

The court is expected to give orders on which of the petitioners' request to grant before proceeding with the full hearings on Wednesday.

According to lawyer Julie Soweto, representing the petitioners, the IEBC has not denied or disputed the fact that there was infighting which led to the resignation of one Commissioner, Rosyline Akombe.

Should the Supreme Court issue orders as requested by the petitioners, the electoral body would be required to produce all SIM cards inserted into the voter identification devices.

The petitioners in the case also claim the election results held by the IEBC had no resemblance to those submitted using the results transmission systems.

The petitioners therefore want the Court to allow the actual copying of the results, not just a read only.

According to lawyer Soweto, there was evidence of manipulation of the vote and a thorough scrutiny of the votes is required.

Soweto told the Court on Tuesday a random audit of the votes was required to prove that discrepancies were random and widespread.

She said there was clear evidence showing images purported to have originated from the voting kits were not actually transmitted as claimed and that there is need to access information contained in the IEBC servers.

In response, the IEBC and President Kenyatta's lawyers said the IEBC had 24 million pages of documents which are part of what the petitioners wanted and the information could possibly not be provided within the time.

Lawyer Tom Macharia, representing President Kenyatta, said the petitioners should make clear the intention of seeking the information and the purposes for which they were seeking such information.

According to the lawyers, one of President Kenyatta's agents, Davis Chirchir, was facing prosecution as a result of the information accessed during the August presidential election petition.

The Court is expected to deliver its ruling on 20 November on whether the election of president Kenyatta is valid and constitutional.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/UIO/ GABON 2017

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