Uhuru, IEBC ‘have not responded to issues raised’ - Raila says

Nasa lawyers from left: James Orengo, Pheroze Nowrojee and Otiende Amollo talk at the Supreme Court on August 29, 2017 during the presidential poll petition. They said the results were tampered with. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Odinga said that the final results were not based on either electronic or manual delivery of forms 34A and 34B.
  • Mr Odinga has argued that forms 34A were not scanned and their images transmitted electronically.

Nasa leader Raila Odinga has asked the Supreme Court to nullify the outcome of the August 8 General Election, saying President Uhuru Kenyatta was not validly elected.

Mr Odinga told the court that the poll was shambolic and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission conducted it in a manner that violated constitutional and legal provisions.

He added that the final results were not based on either electronic or manual delivery of forms 34A and 34B

SHAMBOLIC
Mr Odinga’s lawyers said the electoral agency and its chairman Wafula Chebukati failed to respond to the substantive issues the petitioner raised on the conduct of the election.

Lead counsel James Orengo told the court that if proper scrutiny of the electoral materials is conducted, it will be established that the 2017 General Election was shambolic.

Lawyer Otiende Amollo told the court that the commission, Mr Chebukati and President Kenyatta did not respond to the issues raised.

TRANSMISSION

He said they, instead, decided to create an imaginary case and responded to it in the way they wanted.

“The truth of the matter is that the lawyers for President Kenyatta, the commission and Mr Chebukati have treated this court with a lot of contempt,” Mr Amollo said.

The thrust of Mr Odinga’s case has been that the presidential election results were not transmitted electronically as required by law.

He has argued that forms 34A were not scanned and their images transmitted electronically, with Mr Amollo pointing out that the respondents had not responded to these issues.

DECLARATION
Mr Amollo further said the commission and its chairman did not explain whether all the statutory instruments were at his disposal before he declared the final presidential election results.

He insisted that at the time of announcing the final results, the chairman was not in possession of 11,000 forms 34A and wondered on what basis the declaration was made.

He said the claim that the presidential election results were made on the basis of forms 34B was erroneous because they are an aggregate of forms 34A, which he said were only available five days after the announcement of the presidential election results.

VERIFICATION
Mr Amollo, who is also the Rarieda MP-elect, questioned the haste by Mr Chebukati in announcing the results, just three days after polling yet he had seven days.

He said this points to a mischief on the part of the commission.

“The law requires that presidential election results come in randomly and from the polling stations.

"But this was not the case and the respondents have not responded to this,” he said.

In his submission, senior counsel Pheroze Nowrojee asked the commission to explain how it made the announcement without forms 34A, saying this was proof that there was no verification.

He said even though the returning officers had presented the forms at the national tallying centre, the commission withheld them for a total of five days and only released them to the petitioner after it had tampered with them.