Supreme Court validates Ruto’s election as President

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President-Elect William Ruto receiving his certificate from IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati on August 15th after being declared winner./COURTESY

President-Elect William Ruto was validly elected as the President of Kenya.

The Supreme Court of Kenya validated President-Elect William Ruto’s election in the August 7th presidential elections.

The Seven-Member court dismissed Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance petition challenging Ruto’s election in the August General elections.

The Supreme Court ruled, among others, that President-Elect William Ruto attained the 50 percent plus one threshold.

“The petitioners did not present a watertight case to warrant the setting aside of results declared by the IEBC Chairman. 7,106,569 was the 50% of total votes cast in the presidential election. President elect exceeded this amount and attained 50%+1 of the votes,” said Chief Justice Martha Koome in the Supreme Court ruling.

The Apex Court dismissed all eight allegations in the petitions and upheld Ruto’s election as president.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said it could not nullify the elections due to a walk out by four Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Commissioners.

“We note that apart from their 11th hour denunciation there is no evidence that the election was compromised . The four IEBC commissioners have not stated why they participated in the verification yet it was opaque,” said the CJ.

Judges found no credible evidence that there was any tampering with the uploading of forms 34A to the public portal.

The court also found no significant difference between the forms 34A posted to the public portal, those presented to the National Tallying Center, and those provided to agents.

On the postponement of elections affecting the voter turnout, the Judges found that there is no evidence that the postponement of the election in Mombasa, Kakamega, Rongai, and five other areas across the country resulted in voter suppression.

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