William Ruto is the 5th Kenyan President – Supreme Court
Kenya’s Supreme Court on Monday, September 5, 2022, upheld the re-election of President Elect William Ruto – Unanimously by all 7 judges.
This means that Mr Ruto will be sworn in as the Head of State on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.
It is exactly 15 years since the country experienced violence following a disputed presidential election which led to bloodshed that left at least 1,300 people dead and over 600,000 displaced.
The ruling by seven Judges of the Supreme Court who include; Chief Justice Martha Koome, Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, Justice William Ouko, Justice Isaac Lenaola, Lady Justice Njoki Ndung’u, Justice Smokin Wanjala and Justice Mohamed Ibrahim said that the election was conducted in a free and fair manner.
Also read: What has been addressed in the Supreme Court so far
The first determination in the case was whether the simplicity test the petitioners said the IEBC’s voter identification kits failed the simplicity test as required by the Constitution.
Chief Justice Martha Koome said that they were not persuaded that technology failed the test “with reasons that in as much as it was true that KIEMS kit failed in 235 polling stations, 86889 voters were granted the right to vote manually and the requisite forms 32A were successfully filled.”
On whether there was interference in the transmission of forms from polling stations to the National Tallying Centre
The CJ said that there was no credible evidence meeting standard of proof that was adduced by petitioners. The scrutiny report did not reveal any security breaches of the IEBC systems.
“We are satisfied that the inconsistencies and inaccuracies identified during the audit were addressed. In our considered view, there was no evidence of a man in the middle server and no evidence was produced to show that the IEBC Chairperson and other IEBC staff were involved,” the CJ said.
On whether there was a deduction of votes from Mr Odinga to DP Ruto, the CJ said that the court ordered scrutiny of the 41 forms outlined and that there were no significant differences found between forms uploaded on the portal and those delivered to Bomas of Kenya.
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The court also checked out whether the postponement of elections in some areas led to voter suppression and they said that they were satisfied that it did not affect the outcome of the presidential election.
During the hearing of the case, a section of International media reported that Kenya is the only country where people are allowed to decide who will be the Head of State before the seven Judges who sit at the Supreme Court decide on whether the election was conducted in a free and fair manner.
The ruling is the opposite of a historical one that was made in 2017 when the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta whose term is almost ending was nullified by the court in what was termed as a historic ruling.
Such rulings like that of nullifying the win of a Head of State are usually rare and they show the independence that the Kenyan judicial system usually enjoys within the African continent.
The presidential results were announced on August 15, 2022, by IEBC whose chairman is Mr Wafula Chebukati who announced Mr Ruto who is the current Deputy President as the winner.
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Mr Ruto according to the results announced by Mr Chebukati garnered 7,176,141 votes against Mr Odinga who garnered 6,942,930 votes.
On the fateful day, Mr Chebukati experienced a hard time before he was allowed to announce the results as leaders affiliated to the Azimio la Umoja Coalition and who were supporting Mr Odinga led by Siaya Governor James Orengo claimed that the results had been manipulated.
This saw a section of the leaders with their supporters cause chaos at the Bomas of Kenya which was the national tallying center for IEBC.
Both Mr Ruto and Mr Odinga have for the last few days been asking their supporters to maintain peace even if their camps will lose in the court case.
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