IEBC legal team, led by Githu Muigai, Eric Gumbo among others, were left in a tight spot after Raila Odinga’s lawyer Julie Soweto proved to court how the forms 34A in the commission’s portal were manipulated.
In her presentation, Soweto showed the court a form 34A from Gacharaigu Polling station in Murang’a county which bore the name of Jose Camargo, one of the Venezuelan nationals who were arrested at the JKIAÂ in July this year, thus proving that there was foul play in transmission of the election results.
Following the presentation, Muigai took to the podium asking for permission to respond to the presentation which he referred to as new evidence.
“My lady, madam chief justice, we would like a reply from the court whether the reply and responses relate to questions of law that have arisen from our presentation or whether is an opportunity for our learned friends to rehash their case afresh and to introduce new evidence,” Muigai said.
Responding to Muigai, Chief Justice Koome made it clear that the petitioners were responding to the questions that arose from the responses given by respondents in the petition thus ignoring his concerns that that was new evidence. .
“We know what constitutes a rejoinder, it is a response to issues of law arising from the respondents’ response so just to remind counsel it was about responding to matters of law,” Koome said.
William Ruto’s lead lawyer Fred Ngatia also wanted an opportunity to prove to the court that whatever Soweto and the team presented was not true.
“Otherwise, this image is now all over the country, a sensational image about forms with names of people. All I would request, Madam CJ, is an opportunity for re-battle. On the basis that that is new evidence, it was never played, those were not polling stations in the petition, it is totally new, it would be unfair for us to walk away to defend ourselves,” Ngatia said.
In a quick rejoinder, Raila’s lawyer James Orengo reiterated that they were responding to questions asked by judges after their submissions on Wednesday this week.
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