‘Anyone’ has until Monday midnight to petition the
controversial reelection of President Uhuru Kenyatta in the October 26 repeat
polls.
A local daily, however, on Monday hinted at a high
possibility of Mr Kenyatta’s victory being challenged at the apex court, not by
anyone – in the sense of an aggrieved voter – but by a group of civil society
organisations.
The weight of the matter - which will be before the
seven judge bench for the second time in a year – may not be as was the
case in the August 8 petition filed by them Nasa presidential candidate Mr
Raila Odinga, as he ruled out the possibility of returning to the CJ David Maraga
led team for resolve.
“The new suit will essentially bring to a halt the
swearing-in preparations for Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto that was set for
November 14,” the Star reported on Monday.
Earlier when he spoke at the Bomas of Kenya while
receiving his nomination certificate, Mr Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto
contemplated that the Opposition “had various legal avenues to exhaust
before engaging in talks” with Jubilee’s bigwigs.
The civil society groups, including Inuka Trust led by
anti-graft crusader Mr John Githogo, the Katiba Insitute, associated with Prof
Yash Pal Ghai, and Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) headed by Khelef Khalifa,
have already been summoned by the Nongovernmental Organisation’s Board under
unclear circumstances.
It is understood, however, that the lobby groups have thrown
their weights behind a riveting petition to stop Uhuru Kenyatta’s swearing-in
fete, which is slated for November 14.
On Wednesday last week, through a press conference, umbrella
body Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu, questioned the aggregate numbers Mr Kenyatta
got in the repeat polls, citing other discrepancies in figures in the poll that
was skipped by Mr Odinga.
The lobby group argued that the IEBC voter register had
changed four times since it was gazetted in June. During the August 8 polls,
the Wafula Chebukati-led IEBC said there were a total of 19,637,061 registered
voters. This changed to 19,611,366 in the October 26 vote.
“The number of registered voters announced by Chebukati
differed from the gazetted number of the Register of Voters, both at the
national and county levels. In fact, Chebukati’s announced numbers match what
is in the gazetted register in only 4 of the 48 counties,” the lobby had
said.
It added that Mr Chebukati bungled up figures to award
Mr Kenyatta his resounding victory of 98.2 per cent of the votes cast in
the highly protracted exercise.
The team argued that Uhuru’s aggregate tally of votes from
constituencies comes to 7,583,895 and not the 7,483,895 declared by the
Commission, a difference of 100,000 votes.
The new petition, which comes amid criticism to the Apex
court, yet proves another daunting exercise for Mr Kenyatta, even after he
roughed up the Supreme Court judges, amid indications from Mr Maraga that
should a petition of that nature be presented to him, he will rally the judges
to nullify it.
“It [the judgment] ought to lead the IEBC to a
soul-searching and to go back to the drawing board. If not, this Court,
whenever called upon to adjudicate on a similar dispute will reach the same
decision if the anomalies remain the same, irrespective of who the aspirants
may be,”Maraga warned during hi historic ruling at the Supreme Court.
Critics claim the civil society organisations heading to
court are associates of opposition chief Raila Odinga, but Pulse Live Kenya
could not independently verify this.
Meanwhile, Mr Odinga addressing a press conference on Monday last week,
instead vowed to form the resistance movement and the People’s Assembly to
instead bring electoral justice, in a bid to call for fresh elections in 90
days.
