The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has demanded Sh80 Million to facilitate the printing of the voter register in a petition challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election.
Activists Njonjo Mue and Khelef Khalifa through Lawyer Harun Ndubi told the court that they had been asked to deposit the amount in the commission’s accounts in order to get copies of the register.
IEBC through Lawyer Fredrick Sisule explained that the register runs to 450,000 pages adding that if the printing exercise is to be made faster then the cost will be higher.
The petitioners asked the court to compel the state to assist them in footing the hefty amount but their proposal was declined by Chief Justice David Maraga.
CJ Maraga however, directed the electoral commission to give Mue and Khalifa soft copies of the register.
[caption caption="Activist Njonjo Mue"]
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“Kindly note that our client the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is ready and willing to immediately comply with the court order in issue subject only to you facilitating the costs. For the avoidance of doubt, the amount in Kenya Shillings Eighty Million (Ksh.80,000,000),” the Lawyer stated.
“To comply with the court order, the exercise should be done in a factory. But if we are to do it the other way, then the exercise will take about two weeks,” he added.
The Supreme Court also directed IEBC to provide Mue and Khalifa with access to the original forms 34A, 34B and 34C used to declare presidential results in October.
The Court, however, declined to compel the commission to open up its servers, make KIEMS log available or avail polling station diaries on the grounds that IEBC had already made available some of these records
[caption caption="File image of Supreme Court Judges"]
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