NAIROBI SEPTEMBER 1, 2017 (CISA)- The Supreme Court of Kenya has nullified the results of the August 8, presidential election and ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC) to conduct a fresh election within 60 days.
In the ruling, the court determined that IEBC had failed, neglected and refused to conduct the election in the manner dictated in the Constitution.
Chief Justice David Maraga said a majority decision by the panel of six judges, with two dissenting, found that Kenyatta “was not validly elected, rendering the result invalid, null and void.”
“The first respondent (IEBC) failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution,” said Justice Maraga.
He said the panel of judges had not yet had time to write a “reasoned and well-considered judgment” since hearings closed on August 29 at night and therefore read out the court decision, promising a full ruling at a later date.
National Super Alliance (NASA) Presidential candidate Raila Odinga on August 19 filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the declaration of the incumbent President, Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the just concluded General Elections.
Through his lead lawyer, Senior Counsel James Orengo, he argued that irregularities — including unsigned and fake tally forms, hacked servers and deliberate miscounting — had affected around one-third of the 15.5 million votes cast.
But IEBC and President Kenyatta’s lawyers countered that errors were simply “clerical mistakes and technicalities that did not affect the outcome of the vote.”
A report filed by the court registrar found a number of errors in the 41,451 polling stations tally sheets — known as form 34A — as well as in 291 of the form 34B constituency tally sheets, some of which were unsigned, not stamped, illegible or lacking serial numbers or watermarks.
