The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
THIS WEEK: Kenya’s Supreme Court receives petitions to overturn repeat poll
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | On Nov.06, Kenya’s Supreme Court received two petitions challenging the legality of the October 26 re-run presidential poll with petitioners calling for overturning the results and charging opposition leader Raila Odinga for boycotting a repeat election that he had initially called for.
The first petitioner, a former parliamentarian John Harun Mwau argues that before conducting the election the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) should have conducted fresh nominations. The second petitioner – Khelef Khalifa, the chairman of the Kenyan chapter of the International commission of Jurists (ICJ) and director of Muslims for Human Rights raised the same points. The petitioners argue that the repeat election which gave Kenyatta a 98% win and saw only 38% of voters casting their votes was mismanaged by the electoral body.
Khalifa cites among others the failure of elections to take place in some constituencies and a statement made by IEBC’s chairman Wafula Chebukati on Election Day that he couldn’t guarantee a free and fair poll. The organization also asked that Court declares Odinga and other leaders of his National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition guilty of electoral offences for interfering with the fresh polls after the August.08 initial elections.
However, there were attempts to block the October 26 poll before it happened but this didn’t take place as Supreme Court didn’t have the required quorum to hear the petition. Now, It’s feared that a third poll being mooted by the petitioners would plunge the country into more chaos.
