Supreme Court judges are set to give a full judgment on a presidential petition challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory in the October 26 polls on Monday.
The law requires that 21 days after a determination is given by the bench, a full judgment is given as well.
The apex court cannot issue the full judgment not later than Monday as stipulated in the presidential petition rules.
In regard to the October 26 repeat presidential election, the apex court with seven judges is required to explain in its judgment how it arrived at a unanimous decision to uphold Uhuru’s victory.
Uhuru’s victory was challenged by two parties. The first petitioner was ex-Kilome MP Harun Mwau.
The second petitioner was Njonjo Mue of ICJ (Kenyan chapter) and Khelef Khalifa of Muhuri.
After the judgment was issued by the six-judge bench led by Chief Justice David Maraga on November 21, the judges retreated to harmonize every section of the petition each judge was handling.
The two petitions were consolidated into one petition.
In dismissing the petition on November 21, Maraga said the petitioners failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the election was deeply flawed to a point it should be nullified.
“The court has unanimously determined that the petitions are not merited and the final orders are that the petition by Mwau versus the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and two others as consolidated is hereby dismissed,” said the CJ as quoted by the Star.
He added: “The petition by Njonjo Mue and another versus the chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and three others as consolidated is also hereby dismissed. As a consequence, the presidential election of October 26 is hereby upheld as is the election of Uhuru Kenyatta.”
Issue compounding the petitioners’ case included failure by IEBC to conduct nominations as required by law and locking out some voters from NASA strongholds.
But legal counsel representing President Kenyatta who was a respondent in the case argued that nominations were not necessary because it was a repeat election and not a general election.
They also told the six-judge bench hearing the case that votes from NASA stronghold could not tilt the scales much thereby justifying Uhuru’s win.
Uhuru got over 7.4 million votes in the repeat elections. His main challenger Raila Odinga got a paltry 79, 000 votes although he said he had withdrawn from the race.
The judges in their full judgment are expected to expound on the two issues highlighting if or not IEBC acted in accordance with the law or not.