The Supreme Court bench has issued new instructions in a case filed by IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati seeking clarification on whether he can edit forms 34B, if the results cannot be reconciled with forms 34A in his role as National Returning officer for the Presidential election.
Chief Justice David Maraga stated that the matter would be heard on Wednesday at 10 am and ordered counsel for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to file detailed submissions.
He further ordered the legal team to serve the other parties with the submissions by the close of business today.
Lawyers for the other parties, specifically Jubilee Party candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA candidate Raila Odinga, have further been directed to file their submissions by the close of business on Tuesday.
[caption caption="IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati"]
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Acting for the IEBC, lawyer Paul Muite appealed to the court to issue a 'crystal clear' clarification on Chebukati's role as the National Returning Officer following the ruling that placed the blame on him for failing to verify all forms 34A before declaring Kenyatta the President-elect.
He stated that the confusion arose from the Supreme Court decision coupled with the Court of Appeal's ruling in the Maina Kiai case that decided that results recorded in forms 34A are final, and are aggregated to come up with the forms 34B.
Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu reminded Muite: "What did the Court of Appeal tell you people to do, tell the returning officers to do with their B forms? Any problem arising between As and Bs will be resolved by the election petitions court. Where is the difference between what the Court of Appeal said and what we said?"
Chebukati is seeking clarification if he can amend forms 34B at the National Tallying Centre if they do not tally with 34A received at the Constituency Tallying Centre.
[caption caption="Wafula Chebukati declaring Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the nullified August polls"]
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The matter has been described by the court as urgent and all involved parties have been urged to act within the given timeframes.
The ruling that nullified Kenyatta's win found that 11,883 Forms 34A could not be authenticated as they were unavailable for scrutiny up to 9 days after the declaration of the final tally.
