Nasa had irrelevant evidence in poll petition: Otiende Amollo
Nasa lawyer Otiende Amollo arrives at the Supreme Court on September 1, 2017 ahead of the presidential election petition verdict. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The Nasa leadership had assured their supporters that there was sufficient evidence to prove that the elections were rigged in favour of Uhuru.
- The Supreme Court ruled that the presidential election was marred by illegalities and irregularities, then went ahead to order a rerun.
Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo has disclosed how opposition coalition Nasa almost lost their petition against the outcome of the August 8, 2017 presidential election.
Dr Amollo, who was the face of Nasa’s legal team, revealed that the Raila Odinga-led coalition had no reliable evidence to sustain their case three days before the deadline for filing the petition at the Supreme Court.
According to Dr Amollo, he was initially reluctant to take up the case since he was approached three days to the deadline, bearing in mind the magnitude of such a petition.
"When I was brought in I said this is such a short time, do you have the evidence? I was assured that we had mountains of evidence so I was taken to see the mountains of evidence," he said on Monday at the Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, during a book launch graced by Uganda’s opposition leader Kizza Besigye.
TALLYING CENTRES
During that period, the Nasa leadership consisting of Mr Odinga and his co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Musalia Mudavadi (Amani National Congress) and Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya) had assured their supporters that there was sufficient evidence to prove that the elections were rigged in favour of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Their assurances were based on claims that Nasa had several parallel tallying centres within and outside the country, including one “in the clouds” as Mr Odinga had put it.
"I walked into this room with a group of about 70 young, good people and I have never seen so much evidence in my life. There were piles and piles of files but when I sat down to be briefed on the evidence, I had never seen so much irrelevant evidence," Dr Amollo said.
SUPREME COURT
He explained that the team had been working for a whole week but whatever they had done had to be reviewed.
"They had been working for seven days but what they had been working on was irrelevant for an advocate quite honestly, so we had to start again and I have never spent so much time with little sleep in three days but well, we did it," he said.
The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice David Maraga ruled that the presidential election was marred by illegalities and irregularities, then went ahead to order a rerun.
But it was subsequently boycotted by the opposition; they casted doubts on the credibility of the electoral agency.
