NASA Lawyers Explain Why Petition Was Filed at Raila Odinga's Home

National Super Alliance (NASA) lawyers have revealed that they were forced to flee to Opposition Leader Raila Odinga's Karen home after suspected government spies raided their offices last week as they worked on the election petition against President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Speaking to the Nation, the lawyers stated that their offices were raided thrice between Wednesday and Thursday to slow them down and prevent them from meeting the Friday night deadline for filing of the petition.

The NASA legal team mentioned that they were forced to shift base three times between Wednesday and Friday to evade raids from suspected police and intelligence officers.

The Opposition lawyers explained that they were being hunted down by "undercover police agents" whom they accused of being behind the raids adding that after the third raid they were forced to shift base to Mr Odinga's Karen home.

“Following the third raid on our secret operational base, it was decided that we shift base to Raila’s home in Karen.

"That was the only safe location we could operate from. We were being hunted down like rabbits,” the lawyer stated.

Apart from the attacks, the NASA legal team also faced problems of infiltration from suspected intelligence officers as well as defections of key specialists on the deadline day forcing them to look for late replacements.

“Three very critical experts, when it came to signing the papers at the very tail end of the exercise, switched off their phones and disappeared.

"Luckily, they were not working alone so we got other lawyers to take over, given the strict timelines we were operating under,” the NASA lawyer stated.

The Opposition lawyer further noted that they were also forced to vet and turn away a number of volunteer workers whom they suspected to be government spies.

"Of course we had to vet the volunteer lawyers and the clerks to ensure our team was not infiltrated by the other side.

"We turned away quite a number because we did not trust their intentions. The lawyers we settled on had to be agreeable to our core team of lawyers,” the source revealed.

The NASA legal team eventually filed the petition on Friday night a few hours before the midnight deadline.

The legal team in charge of crafting the petition was led by MPs elect; Otiende Amollo (Rarieda), Opondo Kaluma (Homa Bay Town), Anthony Oluoch (Mathare) and Tom Kajwang’ (Ruaraka).

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