Supreme Court Upholds William Ruto's election as president

Chebukati had declared Ruto as president-elect after garnering 7,176,141 votes (50.49%) against Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga's 6,942,930 (48.85%)votes.

Speaking while delivering the judgement, Chief Justice Martha Koome said that the full judgment would be shared after 21 days.

Summary of verdicts issued by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said that in the 2022 presidential election petition, the court had nine issues to determine whether the presidential election results would be upheld or nullified and what orders will be issued.

Chief Justice Martha Koome who is the president of the Supreme Court explained that the judges looked at the nine issues listed.

Integrity of election technology

She said that one of the issues was whether the technology used by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission met the standards of integrity to guarantee accurate and verified results.

Supreme Court's verdict: Supreme Court is not persuaded that the IEBC technology did not meet the standards for ensuring the accurate and verifiable outcome of the August 9 poll. The petitioners did not demonstrate security breaches on the IEBC results transmission system.

The pre-trial Conference for the presidential petition underway at the Supreme Court of Kenya. Pulse Live Kenya

Interference and staging of transmission process

The Supreme Court also had to determine whether there was interference in the uploading of Forms 34A from the polling station into IEBC’s server.

Supreme Court's verdict: The petitioners did not prove that there was interference in the uploading of Forms 34A from the polling station into IEBC’s server. No evidence produced to show the transmission process was staged.

Vote suppression

The Supreme Court determined whether the postponement of elections in Kakamega, Mombasa Counties, Kitui Rural, Kacheliba, Pokot South, Rongai constituencies, Kwa Njenga Ward and Nyaki West wards resulted in voter suppression to the detriment of Raila Odinga.

Supreme Court's verdict: Chebukati had the right to postpone the elections in other parts of the country after some ballot mixup. No proof that postponement resulted in vote suppression to the detriment of Odinga.

Scrutiny of Forms 34A

Additionally, the judges were supposed to rule whether there was a difference between Forms 34A uploaded into the IEBC portal, those delivered physically to the Bomas of Kenya National Tallying Centre and those issued to presiding officers at the various polling stations.

Supreme Court's verdict: There was no significant difference between Forms 34A uploaded into the IEBC portal, and those delivered physically to the Bomas of Kenya National Tallying Centre.

Difference between the votes cast during the presidential election and other elections

The Supreme Court also looked at whether there was an unexplained difference between the votes cast in the presidential election and other elections.

Supreme Court's verdict: No unexplainable discrepancies between votes for the presidential candidates and those of other candidates.

Supreme Court judges (From L-R): Isaac Lenaola, Smokin Wanjala, Philomena Mwilu (DCJ), Martha Koome (Chief Justice), Mohamed Ibrahim, Njoki Ndung’u and William Ouko during the pre-trial conference on August 30, 2022 Pulse Live Kenya

Chebukati vs 4 IEBC commissioners

The petitioners argued that IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati errored in not involving other commissioners in the tallying, verification of the presidential election.

Supreme Court's verdict: The chairman cannot arrogate himself powers to tally the results at the exclusion of other commissioners.

However, the court observed that the 4 commissioners participated in the tallying, verification of the results from the beginning up to the end, before the declaration of the results by the chairperson.

IEBC carried out the tallying, verification and declaration of the results in accordance with the constitution.

“Are we to nullify an election on account of a last-minute boardroom rupture? This we cannot do,” CJ Koome asked.

Did Ruto garner 50%+1 vote?

The supreme court was supposed to determine whether William Ruto met the constitutional threshold to be declared president-elect.

Supreme Court's verdict: Rejected votes should not be included in calculating whether a presidential candidate meets the 50%+1 vote threshold. Ruto met the required threshold to be declared the president-elect.

Irregularities and illegalities in the electoral process

The judges also determined whether there were irregularities and illegalities in the electoral process and if they were of such a magnitude as to affect the presidential election result.

Supreme Court's verdict: There were no irregularities and illegalities of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the presidential election.

Check it out here!

Supreme Court upholds Ruto's election as president [List of judgements issued]

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