Nine petitions were filed at the Supreme Court challenging the election victory of President-elect William Ruto with that of his perennial rival, Azimio La Umoja flagbearer, Raila Odinga, taking centre stage.
Seven out of the nine filed by Odinga, Busia senator-elect Okiya Omtatah, human rights activists Khelef Khalifa, George Osewe, Ruth Mumbi and Grace Kamau, and voter John Kamau want Chebukati and Ruto found guilty of election malpractice.
The petitioners enumerated a wide range of issues, which formed the basis of their cases hoping that the Supreme Court will hear their prayers.
Among the reliefs being sought is the pronouncement by the apex court that illegalities and irregularities committed by accused persons and parties undermined the credibility of the election results.
In Raila Odinga's petition, he accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and its chairperson, Wafula Chebukati of overturning the will of the people.
Petitioners also want the apex court to declare that President-elect William Ruto was not validly elected as per the Kenyan Constitution. Here are the five concerns that prominently feature in the petitions:
Forensic Audit Of Electoral Technology
Azimio and Khelef Khalifa, the chairperson of Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI) want the Court to order a forensic audit of the technology that was used during the August 9 polls.
Khalifa wants IEBC to grant the petitioners access to a secured review of all KIEMS kits deployed and undeployed in the 2022 General Election with full disclosure of their GPRS locations from August 8 to August 15.
Raila's petition adds that there is a variance of 140, 028 votes between the total number of votes recorded in Form 34C, used to declare the president-elect, and the total number of votes recorded in KIEMS kits.
He further alleges manipulation of voter Turnout-KIEMS kits and that three Venezuelan nationals had super administrator rights to IEBC systems.
The trio, alongside 19 other foreign nationals, Raila claims, had administrator rights to IEBC systems and could remotely access and manipulate entire IEBC data.
Compromised Commission
In the petition filed by Busia senator-elect Okiya Omtatah and that of Raila, it was claimed that both Raila and Ruto did not achieve the required threshold of 50 per cent + 1 vote.
"Based on the scientific arithmetic calculations of the petitions witness, it is evident that William Ruto did not garner 50 per cent plus 1 of the total valid votes cast," activist Omtatah says in his petition.
Speaking to the media after filing the physical petition at the court, Azimio's lawyer, Tom Ojienda, alleged that IEBC electoral technology materials had long been compromised and thus lack of trust among the public for the commission to carry out a credible exercise.
"If you look at the technology which was used in this election, you will find that there are unauthorised users who tried to access the IEBC servers.
Technology which was deployed by IEBC in this exercise was one which did not facilitate the exercise of the right in the manner required by the law," Ojienda lamented.
Raila Odinga argued that there was a fraudulent establishment of parallel Form 34A and manipulation and/or deliberate tampering with Forms 34A in certain constituencies.
Serious Risks To Electoral Process
The petitioners also claim that IEBC gave the public a limited timeframe to acces its system after a report by KPMG outlined that there were serious gaps and risks to the electoral process with respect to the register of voters.
This, they argue resulted in some electoral areas in which some voters could not be identified with their details being transferred to other areas without their knowledge.
Youth Advocacy Africa (YAA) as well stated that the failure of IEBC to conduct an audit at least six months before a general election violated Sections 8A(1) and 8A(6) of the Election Act.
Vote Tallying in 27 Constituencies
Petitioners also want the IEBC's final results quashed based on the fact that 27 constituencies had not been included on the public portal, which if tallied could have influenced final votes for president.
Supreme Court will also listen to a prayer that IEBC results were not based on an absolute total of votes cast across the country with Chebukati on different occasions issuing different voter turnout - at the close of the voting process and at the point of announcing the final voter turnout.
In a petition by former presidential aspirant Paul Kigame, vote tally in 12 counties proved significant discrepancies where a majority of Kenyans voted for President but did not vote for Governor, MCA, Woman rep or an MP.
Juliah Chege's petition has charged the Supreme Court to determine whether IEBC performed its duty to tally the votes cast in subject to the presidential election was fully adhered to.
Vote Re-count
Raila Odinga is praying for a re-count of presidential votes at the Supreme Court and wants to be declared the winner if found to have won the election.
Should there be a re-run, Raila's allies are adamant that he would not participate with Chebukati at the helm. Lawyers argue that Azimio's prayer is not admissible since Chebukati's role is protected by the constitution.
Petitioners also say the fallout among the IEBC commissioners proved a lack of public trust in the commission thus suppressing the deliberations and conduct of the electoral process.
Kigame petition charges that Chebukati chose to declare the presidential results without going through the verification process of the entire IEBC Commissioners to confirm if the results met the required threshold.
Others who have filed petitions at the Supreme Court include David Ngari and former Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria.
Kuria wants the Supreme Court to bar Raila Odinga’s suit seeking to nullify President-elect William Ruto’s win. He argued that Raila's allies orchestrated the chaos at the Bomas of Kenya.
