One of former US President Barack Obama’s classmates at the Harvard Law School has made a major move that could have a positive boost on ODM leader Raila Odinga’s presidential bid.
Maina Kiai, who is also a Special UN rapporteur, has filed a case with two other Kenyans, seeking to change the system used in management of presidential election results.
The new system will involve the Presidential election results announced at the constituency level being treated as final.
The current system is such that the results announced in each constituency is regarded as provisional until they are confirmed by the IEBC commissioners in Nairobi.
Odinga had tried to have the system proposed by Kiai to be applied in the 2013 presidential election petition he had filed at the Supreme Court.
The system was, however, rejected in the final ruling made by the Supreme Court.
The ODM leader and his allies had also attempted to enforce the system during the joint-parliamentary committee that discused reforms in the electoral body.
The IEBC has already objected to Kiai’s petition, arguing before the High Court that the matter had already been decided upon by a superior court.
"Entertaining the case would be like reopening the Raila Odinga versus two others and the IEBC presidential petition, an act that would be frowned upon by the doctrine of res judicator," IEBC lawyers told a three-judge bench on Thursday.
