Lawyers representing the Azimio La Umoja coalition have leaked some of the arguments they will be placing before the Supreme Court regarding the just concluded presidential election.
Azimio’s presidential candidate Raila Odinga is seeking the court’s intervention, on grounds that the election was not free and fair and he won, contrary to what IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati announced.
His legal representatives who spoke to The Standard have revealed that they plan on cornering IEBC, by among others, arguing that he lacked the power to make the announcement in the first place.
The paper was told that the plan is to argue that the announcement, constitutionally, needs to be made with the backing of at least five commissioners, but Chebukati did it with the backing of two.
Cherera and four commissioners at Serena Hotel
The team seeks to use the walkout by four commissioners, led by Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera, to corner Chebukati, who, while announcing the final result, Cherera and team were opposing the results in a presser from a different location.
One of the lawyers told the paper in anonymity that they have many other grounds for opposing the win, including the said opaqueness of the process, and are confident of an win.
Raila Odinga
“Expect enough evidence in our petition; there are a lot of grounds,” the lawyer is quoted.
The opaqueness argument has also been initiated by the four commissioners, who have claimed that Chebukati kept them in the dark on among others, the final presidential results and refused to have them check what he was about to announce.
It has emerged that the split in the commission is among the arguments Azimio is banking on, even as Chebukati argues that this is because he refused to give in to their demands to declare a runoff.
Chebukati on Monday last week announced outgoing Deputy President William Ruto as the winner at the Bomas of Kenya, an event that was attended by all the other candidates apart from Raila.
