Blow to RAILA ODINGA as 3 move to the High Court to stop the Supreme Court from declaring him President-elect – Look! Is RUTO in panic?

 

Wednesday, August 24, 2022 – Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s petition challenging the election of William Ruto as the 5th President of Kenya has attracted both friends and foes.

While Raila’s friends are putting in efforts to make sure that the Supreme Court overturns Ruto’s controversial win, his foes are busy trying to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

Yesterday, three petitioners moved to court to clip the Supreme Court’s powers to declare Azimio La Umoja flagbearer Raila Odinga as the President-elect.

Alshford Koome, Michael Asola, and Eric Githinji are seeking interpretation of Section 80 (4) of the Elections Act which allows the Supreme Court to order the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to announce the winner of the August 9 polls. 

“An election court may by order direct the Commission to issue a certificate of election to a President, a member of Parliament or a member of a county assembly if upon recount of the ballots cast, the winner is apparent,” the Act reads. 

With these powers, the apex court can order a recount of the presidential vote and order IEBC to withdraw the certificate it gave to William Ruto who was declared the president-elect on Monday, August 15. 

In the petition filed as urgent, the petitioners want the High Court to give its interpretation of the Section, issuing prayers that the court declares it unconstitutional null and void.

They argue that handing over the supreme powers to the seven apex judges is a violation of the Procedure of a Presidential election as enshrined in Article 138 of the constitution.

The Article states that if no candidate is elected, a run-off shall be held within sixty days after the previous election. A run-off only allows the first two candidates who did not attain 50 per cent plus 1 vote to contest. 

Consequently, they opined that the Supreme Court sticks to its mandate and either validate or annul President-elect William Ruto’s win. 

If annulled, then a repeat election is held within 60 days as dictated by Article140 of the Constitution.