Aukot wants court to establish if IEBC used clean process

Presidential elections proceedings at the Supreme Court on August 28, 2017. Dr Ekuru Aukot of the Thirdway Alliance, has told the court that he is not challenging the results declaring Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the poll but the process IEBC used. PHOTO |JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Dr Aukot conceded the outcome but his concession does not mean he “gives a clean bill of health” to the results.
  • Mutuma said their team conducted an audit of the election process and found out that there were a number of anomalies.
  • He said if the court finds this to be the case, then that is a failure on the part of IEBC.

A presidential candidate in the August 8 elections, Dr Ekuru Aukot of the Thirdway Alliance, has told the Supreme Court that he is not challenging the results declaring Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the poll.

According to his lawyer, Elias Mutuma, Dr Aukot conceded the outcome but his concession does not mean he “gives a clean bill of health” to the results.

He said their team conducted an audit of the election process and found out that there were a number of anomalies, which continued to recur, throughout the election process.

Mr Mutuma told the court that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had a duty to ensure that all the election materials – including the Form 34As and 34Bs – were safe by putting in place an infrastructure which ensures that the forms are secure.

He said that instead, the forms were scattered all over and at the disposal of the presiding officers and returning officers, in a manner that they could not be accounted for.

PROCESS

He said if the court finds this to be the case, then that is a failure on the part of IEBC.

“The effect of this is that (the breaches) impeach the results that were pronounced. It is our submission that the results should be a product of a clean process,” he said.

The lawyer maintained that the electoral body must meet minimum standards in the election management.

“Where election managers are below those standards, then the results must be impeached. The court ought to review the actions of the commission to establish whether the qualitative standards have been achieved. If there are breaches then the results must be impeached,” he said adding that the documents as submitted are not verifiable or secure and were open to manipulation.