MUGWANG’A: Whatever the outcome, petitions present very compelling arguments

Nine presidential petitions were on August 22 lodged at the Supreme Court.

Eight of these seek to nullify the declaration of William Ruto as the President-elect by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati on August 15.

The petitions have been filed by Reuben Kigame, Azimio presidential Raila Odinga and running mate Martha Karua, Okiya Omtatah (Senator-elect, Busia), Youth Advocacy Africa, Juliah Nyokabi, John Njoroge Kamau, Khalef Khalifa and Daniel Kariuki Ngari.

The other petition is by Moses Kuria and it seeks to have the petition by Azimio leaders Raila Odinga and Martha Karua thrown out.

Kuria, the immediate former Gatundu South MP cites the commotion witnessed at Bomas of Kenya National Tallying Center minutes before the declaration of the outcome by chairman Chebukati. He wants Raila to take responsibility for the violence, and in that respect, expects the Supreme Court to dismiss the Azimio petition.

The petitions have captured several grounds on which to base their arguments before the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

Violation and lack of independence, transparency and impartiality of the electoral commission

Four of the seven commissioners of the electoral agency cited lack of transparency and exclusion from the tallying process and a one-man running of affairs by the chairman. The Azimio petition argues that the chairman appeared to usurp the role and authority of the entire commission, assuming sole ownership and authority of the vote tallying process.

Going by the Constitution and the IEBC Act, the commission comprises of the chairperson, the vice chairperson and the other five commissions. The process of verifying and tallying the results is the mandate of the commission.

The chairman is accused of disregarding the concerns raised by the other parties, and singularly and with top secrecy tallying and declaring results that were incomplete, it being reported that results from a 27 constituencies were yet to be verified and tallied by the time of the declaration.

These results could tilt the final tally in favour of either camp. On August 13, at around 3pm, the public display of results at the national tallying centre stopped without explanation. During the final stages of the disputed tally, Chebukati is accused of blatantly refusing to share the results with stakeholders as required by law, further proving that he had personally taken over the entire process, provoking the imagination that he was being given directions by an outside force.

Lack of accuracy, verifiability and accountability of voter turnout data

On August 10, Chebukati announced that the total voter turnout as captured by the KIEMS kits was 65.4 per cent, equivalent to 14,466,779 total votes cast. The number should have been higher, after factoring in the number of voters identified using the manual printed register.

Interestingly, in the disputed results announces by the chairman, the number is significantly lower, at 14,213,137 votes. Based on the numbers reported though the process, the initial number declared by the chairman show that none of the candidates garnered the requisite 50%+1 of the total votes cast. It, therefore, raises eyebrows that the chairman had to vanish, work in isolation and reappear with different figures that allowed him to announce a winner.

Compromised security of election materials, systems and devices

The inconsistencies in the voter turnout percentage and final number point strongly to the electoral system breach and manipulation.

This argument is backed by the happenings of July 21, where three Venezuelans were arrested with IEBC materials, comprising of laptops and other materials. The forensic audit of the laptops showed the Venezuelans had access to the IEBC systems.

Election materials have been normally declared and security agencies notified that IEBC consignments of election materials would be arriving. Why were the Venezuelans arriving unannounced, having stuffed IEBC materials and devices among their personal belongings?

Other arguments point to voter numbers discrepancies with a difference in the number of presidential votes, compared to other elective posts in the same polling stations. The petitions have made claims of staging, whereby form 34As have been intercepted and altered at a point between uploading at the polling station and final display in the public portal.

This claim of altering form 34As is strengthened by the unprecedented printing of a duplicate form 34A, which would allow people to change figures but maintain the serial numbers of the form 34As.

A pointer is made of stations where votes were deducted from Raila and the same amount of votes awarded to Ruto.

The postponement of elections in two counties of Mombasa and Kakamega, deemed to be Raila’s political strongholds and failure of Kiems kits in two constituencies, who traditionally voted overwhelmingly for the ODM leader point to a deliberate attempts to suppress voter turnout in these areas, to the disadvantage of the Azimio candidate.

A professional forensic analysis of the elections by Prof Walter Richard Mebane, of the Institute for Political Research, shows that the election was marred with fraud.

That all these happened under the watch of Chebukati shows he has failed to protect and uphold the honour and integrity of the public office that he holds. Worse still, he is strongly accused of being involved in the malpractice.

Let the court pronounce itself given the evidence provided. Political stands aside, it is important to view these arguments objectively and see the strength in the arguments.

Necessary steps should be supported to safeguard the integrity of our electoral process.

Mugwang'a is a political commentator 

[Editor’s note: Chairman Chebukati is on record on August 10 clarifying that “The voter turnout based on the Kiems kits which were functional during the process of voting is 64.6 per cent”.]

 

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