National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga is not new to the Supreme Court.
What Raila Odinga said in 2013 and 2017 as he heads to Kenya's Supreme Court
The key issues that have prompted Mr. Odinga to challenge the election outcome in court both in the 2013 and 2017 polls.
Just soon after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the 2017 Presidential election, Raila and his NASA co-principals said they would not accept the results alleging that the results were rigged in favour of the incumbent.
And on Wednesday afternoon, he vowed to challenge the results in the country’s highest court in what he termed as a move to “lay before the world the making of a computer-generated leadership.”
The same script was witnessed in 2013 when Raila lost the elections to President Uhuru Kenyatta who won by 6,173,433 votes (50.51%) compared to his 5,340,546(43.7%). He moved to the Supreme Court which later on upheld Uhuru’s win.
So what issues did Mr. Odinga raise prompting him to move to court? Business Insider SSA takes a look at the grievances he raised in 2013 and 2017:
2013:
- Flawed exercise
Mr. Odinga claimed that the 2013 polls was a flawed exercise saying that among other things, there was massive tampering with the IEBC Final Register of Voters. He also stated that the voter registration numbers were reduced in his strongholds and added to Jubilee strongholds.
- Democracy on trial
The Presidential flag bearer of the then Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) party, said that it is the democracy that is on trial.
“It is clear that the constitutionally sanctioned process of electing a new set of leaders to take us to the next level has been thwarted by another tainted election,” Odinga told reporters. “It is democracy that is on trial.”
- Failure of the electoral body’s instruments
“What Kenyans witnessed instead was the failure of virtually every instrument the IEBC had deployed for the election, The poll books, the servers, the telephonic transmission, the BVR – they all failed despite the billions spent on acquiring them.”
- IEBC crisis
He condemned the IEBC on failing to deliver a credible election despite the heavy investments made in the commission.
“There had been a massive public investment in the IEBC to ensure that this first post-2007 election would firmly entrench democracy and the rule of law….This is not the IEBC that Kenyans and Judge Kriegler envisioned.9”
2017:
- IEBC went against the law
Mr. Odinga reiterated that the electoral body started streaming results that were not backed by forms 34A as required by law.
He added that IEBC then proceeded to declare Kenyatta the winner illegally.
“From the start, the IEBC was illegally releasing unverified results to create the expectation of an Uhuru Kenyatta victory. This was the equivalent of guaranteeing violence if the final verified results indicated Uhuru had lost,” he stated.
- Consistent lead by Uhuru
The NASA principal poked holes on the consistent 11-percent lead President Kenyatta held throughout the tallying process.
He opined that this was as a result of algorithms used to make sure Kenyatta maintained the lead.
“Such a fixed margin has never been maintained throughout any democratic election anywhere in the world. But it happened here because an algorithm had been introduced to rig the outcome,” he noted.
- Election observers
He sharply condemned elections observers who came out to convince NASA to concede defeat even before the tally was complete.
“Observers grossly violated their mandate and started calling upon NASA to concede – even before the IEBC officially announced the election’s outcome,” he said.
- IEBC Adamancy
The Opposition leader divulged that the electoral body refused to answer questions they raised before Kenyatta was declared winner.
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