President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second term in office is bound to be challenged once again at the Supreme Court by a lobby group.
A lobby group under the umbrella name “We-the-People” is challenging the validity of the repeat Presidential race on October 26.
The group argues the poll “was neither credible nor legitimate”.
Uhuru was declared the winner of the October 26 polls by IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati after garnering over 7.4 million votes.
His main political challenger Raila Odinga boycotted the polls and came a distant second with a paltry 73, 000 votes.
The filing of the petition has remained a chest-close secret with the petitioners fearing attack on their lives by state sponsored goons.
In one of its pleadings to be filed in Court as cited by Daily Nation, the civil society states: “Rather than using the historic Supreme Court judgment to reform and raise electoral standards, the five-year cycle of electoral instability has been further entrenched. This is horribly costly in ways the nation cannot afford and continues to create uncertainty and fear.”
Another thing that has emerged is that several individuals and civil society groups have filed multiple petitions challenging the validity of the polls to make it hard for state-sponsored goons to target them.
However, this has proven to be a herculean task due to exorbitant costs incurred in litigating the matter as well as sh1.5 million required before filing the petition.
Significantly, the petitioners will be asking the Supreme Court to determine if poll credibility could have been affected by Raila’s pull out at the last minute.
Additionally, the group seeks Supreme Court determination if the October 26 polls were conducted in line with provisions of the Constitution and in accordance with September 1 judgment by the apex court which nullified August 8 polls.
They will also seek Supreme Court’s guidance on whether low voter turnout and voter boycott in some parts of the country may have affected the outcome of the final election results where Uhuru won with a landslide.
The group argues provisions of management of electoral process and result transmission was greatly flawed as it did not conform to Court of Appeal ruling which directed that the presidential election results be counted by the constituency returning officers who fill in forms 34B before transmitting them electronically to Bomas of Kenya, the national tallying centre.
“The October 26 poll mirrors the issues raised in the petition to the Supreme Court, which annulled the results of the August 8 presidential election,” cotes another excerpt of the pleadings.
In part of their evidence, the group will adduce evidence of multiple result forms 34A with different results from the same polling station.
They will also provide evidence of forms 34B which do not have serial numbers, forms 34B printed in non-standards formats.