Former prime minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday this week announced that he had rejected presidential results and that William Ruto’s victory is null and void.
According to him, Kenya’s budding democracy suffered a major setback, when IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati chose to announce Ruto as the president-elect even after a majority of commissioners disagreed with the results and distanced themselves from them.
“The law is clear on the role of the Chairperson of the IEBC. The law does not vest in the Chairperson the powers of a dictator to rule the IEBC unilaterally. The IEBC is structured as a democratic institution in which decisions must be taken either by consensus or by a vote of the majority,” Raila stated.
He also noted that they will be moving to court to challenge Chebukati’s presidential declaration with hopes that justice will prevail.
“We are pursuing constitutional and lawful channels and processes to INVALIDATE Mr. Chebukati’s illegal and unconstitutional pronouncement. We are certain that justice will prevail,” the ODM leader said.
Raila is yet to file a petition at the Supreme Court, whereby the matter will be heard and determined within 14 days of filing. The petition is supposed to be filed within 7 days from when the presidential results were declared.
Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi has however insinuated that Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila are not looking forward to the nullification of the elections but instead want the Supreme Court to overturn Ruto’s win and declare Raila as the winner.
“Outgoing President Uhuru and Hon Raila don’t want the Supreme Court to nullify the presidential election of 9.8.2022. They don’t want a rerun. They want the Supreme Court to declare that Hon Raila won the 9.8.2022 elections using fuzzy Maths. Improbable? No! Impossible? No,” the lawyer allied to Ruto said in a tweet.
Others have suggested that Azimio will be heading to court to seek a recount of votes so as to avoid a rerun, that Ruto is allegedly preparing for, by welcoming politicians who decamped from Azimio to his side, among other strategies that he putting in place.
There have been suggestions that Raila will lose further if a rerun is held just like what was witnessed in the repeat of the 2017 presidential election, such that he even pulled out of the rerun in the last minute.
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