Kenya’s Supreme Court has upheld the declaration of William Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua as president-elect and deputy president-elect as announced by the electoral body on August 15.
The court began delivering judgement in a lawsuit that sought to upturn the results of last month’s presidential election and has left the East African nation in political limbo.
In a unanimous decision, the seven judges of the apex court dismissed the seven presidential election petitions including one filed by Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua saying Ruto was validly elected.
“The presidential election petitions… as consolidated are hereby dismissed as a consequence we declare that president-elect to be valid,” Chief Justice Martha Koome said.
The top court dismissed all the nine issues the judges were called upon to consider arising from the election petitions stating that there was no evidence by the petitioners sufficient to upset the results of the August 9 polls.
“Are we to nullify an election on the basis of a last minute rapture the details of which remain scanty? In the absence of any evidence of violation of the constitution and electoral laws, can we overturn the election? This we cannot do. The current dysfunctionality at the commission, did not affect the conduct of the 2022 election,” the judges said.
The Judges however faulted the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati saying he did not make matters better by maintaining “a studious silence even when it was clear that things were falling apart,” at the commission.
The judges confirmed that the technology deployed by the electoral body met the standards of verifiability, transparency and guaranteed credible election.
The Supreme Court said a scrutiny of ballot boxes from 15 polling stations confirmed that there were no interference and the Forms 34As presented the National Tallying Center at the Bomas of Kenya, those given to agents and the ones at the public portal, tallied.
The judges restated that the power to collate and verify the Forms 34A presented at the national tallying centre is not vested in the chairperson of IEBC but the entire commission.
The court’s ruling cannot be appealed. William Ruto will be sworn in on September 13.