By Spy Uganda Correspondent
Kenya’s Supreme Court has concluded hearing from ”defeated” Raila Odinga’s side and ”victorious” William Ruto’s side on the presidential petition in which Odinga alleges that the Electoral Commission’s website was hacked.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is seeking the presidency for the fifth time, is contesting the result of a tight vote after which the election commission chairman declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner.
Four out of the seven commissioners disowned the result. Odinga’s legal team lodged a case alleging that a team working for Ruto hacked into the election system and replaced genuine pictures of polling station result forms with fake ones, thus increasing Ruto’s share.
Ruto’s legal team denied the allegations.
Now, the Supreme Court will make a ruling on Monday 5th September 2022 if the polling station returns were interfered with and whether the postponement of eight gubernatorial and legislative elections disadvantaged any candidate, said Chief Justice Martha Koome, the president of the seven-member court.
The court, whose decision on presidential election petitions is final, will also consider whether there were unexplained disparities in votes cast for presidential and other races such as those for members of parliament, Koome said.
The court will also decide whether the tallying of presidential votes met constitutional standards, and whether Ruto attained the constitutional threshold of 50 percent plus one of the votes cast and whether any irregularities were substantial enough to nullify the poll, Koome said.
Remember that in 2017, this very Court ordered a rerun of the presidential elections due to irregularities, but upheld the victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta after Odinga, then his rival, boycotted them.
