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140,028 votes were not tallied - Omtatah tells Supreme Court

He argued that none of the presidential candidates achieved the 50+1 threshold.

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by SHARON MWENDE

News22 August 2022 - 17:05

In Summary


  • •Omtatah argues the there were discrepancies in the tallying of votes which in the end affected the final results.
  • •He said the percentage of voter turnout as announced by IEBC chair Chebukati does not add up with the results of the four presidential candidates plus the votes spoilt/ rejected.
Activist Okiya Omtatah going to court

Busia Senator-elect Okiya Omtatah has filed a petition challenging the declaration of William Ruto as the President-elect by the Supreme Court of Kenya.

According to a petition seen by the Star, Omtatah argues the there were discrepancies in the tallying of votes which in the end affected the final results.

Omtatah said the percentage of voter turnout as announced by IEBC chair Chebukati does not add up with the results of the four presidential candidates plus spoilt/ rejected votes.

The Senator-elect said that the summation of the votes announced by Chebukati brings the percentage of voter turnout to 64.77, not 65.4 as seen in the KIEMS kit.

Omtatah said the number of those who turn out to vote could not decrease in whichever way since there is a group of voters who cast their votes manually and was not accounted for by the Kiems kit.

"Hence, the at least 65.4 per cent voter turnout from verified KIEMS kits, the minimum number of votes cast was at least 14,466,779. This number could only increase by the number of people who voted manually; it could not decrease by any amount," the petition reads.

"This means that, because the Chairman did not factor in those who voted manually, there are at least 140,028 untallied votes (being 14,466,779 minimum cast votes minus 14,326,751 declared votes cast)."

Omtatah said the incomplete results announced by Chebukati are not verifiable.

"The total cast votes could only be derived by adding the total voter turnout in the KIEMS kits to the total number of voters who voted using the manual register. However, up to date, this number (of persons who voted using the manual register) is unknown yet the Chairman purported to have declared final results."

He further argued that none of the presidential candidates achieved the 50+1 threshold.

"From the workings above, it is clear that no candidate garnered 50 per cent plus one vote as required by Article 138(4)(a) of the Constitution. Hence, there was no basis for the IEBC Chairman, as the returning officer, to declare any candidate as duly elected President of the Republic of Kenya as stated in Form 34C."

According to his calculations, Ruto will have 49.99 per cent, Azimio's Raila Odinga  48.37 per cent, Roots' party leader George  Wajackoyah 0.43 per cent and Waihiga Mwaure of Agano party will have 0.22 per cent.

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