Six judges of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice David Maraga have retreated to write a judgment on a petition challenging Uhuru Kenyatta’s win in the repeat polls.
The petition was filed by ex-Kilome MP Harun Mwau and ICJ Kenya Chairman Njonjo Mue together with Muhuri Chairman Khelef Khalifa.
They are challenging the polls on a number of issues the most predominant being low voter turnout, and IEBC’s failure to conduct nominations for the repeat poll held on October 26.
The petitioner through legal counsel Julie Soweto argued that by the fact Raila Odinga withdrew from the race, the polls should have been cancelled.
In short, the petitioner argues, the polls are null and void since Raila withdrew from the race.
The petitioner questioned the legality of Cyrus Jirongo on the ballot at the last minute.
Jirongo had been declared bankrupt but he sought a court order suspending any proceeding against his for bankruptcy.
But Uhuru’s legal team led by Fred Ngatia together with IEBC’s lawyer Kamau Karori told the court that all decisions taken by the commission was within the confines of the law.
Karori cited a High Court judgment by Justice John Mativo directing the electoral commission to include Thirdway Alliance’s Dr Ekuru Aukot together with other five candidates in the repeat elections.
The Judges will also wade through arguments by the petitioner and defendants regarding nomination.
The petitioner wants the court to nullify the polls on the basis that nominations were not conducted.
However, Ngatia told the judges that nominations in a fresh poll are not mandatory.
He said IEBC failed to conduct nominations because the office of the President was not vacant and it was not a general election.
The judges will also apply their best judgment on whether the low voter turnout that characterized the polls affected the final outcome of the results.
Soweto argued that failure by IEBC to hold elections in 3,635 polling stations located in NASA strongholds representing 1,770,475 voters could dents the final results by IEBC.
Elections were not conducted in some parts of Nyanza and Western as voters who are loyal supporters of NASA heeded to their master’s call to boycott the polls.
But IEBC and Uhuru in their submissions countered this narrative saying it does not hold water.
The two respondents told the court that nullifying the polls would be unfair to the Kenyans who voted on October 26.
They said it would be punishing them for failure of other Kenyans who did not come out to vote.
The ruling is expected to be delivered on Monday.