Less than a month after Chief Justice Martha Koome led the Supreme Court ruling that upheld President-Elect William Ruto’s victory, she has received the biggest reprieve yet, which at the same time came as a huge blow to Raila’s lawyer Paul Mwangi and head of Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance Coalition presidential campaign team, Professor Makau Mutua.
Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, in a telling and suggestive post, retweeted a post by a one Waikwa. Waikwa had emphatically asked Raila Odinga to acquire independent legal advisors who can tell him the true chances that his petition stood. He said this soon after dismissively analysing Paul Mwangi and professor Makau Mutua’s calls for disbandment of the Supreme Court. The retweet read,
Dr Willy M Mutunga, Chief Justice, Kenya (2011-16) Retweeted
waikwa
@waikwawanyoike
I have read @makaumutua and @PaulMMwangi’s “critic” of the Supreme Court presidential decision where they hastily conclude that Supreme Court should be disbanded. I think it may be time @RailaOdinga got independent legal advice on what were the true chances of his petition.
The Supreme Court on Monday 5th September upheld the Aug. 9 election of William Ruto as president in a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Martha Koome said in a scathing judgement that swept aside opposition leader Raila Odinga’s accusations of cheating.
“This is a unanimous decision of the court … This court upholds the election of the first respondent (William Ruto) as the president-elect,” Koome, who heads the seven-member court, said during a televised ruling.
Ruto had been serving as outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s deputy since 2013 but fell out with Kenyatta after the last election. Kenyatta formed an alliance with his long-time rival Odinga instead.
Koome’s judgement left no ambiguity about the court’s opinion of the key arguments brought by Odinga’s team and other complainants, whose cases were combined with Odinga’s.
She dismissed two affidavits alleging that polling stations results forms had been tampered with as “double hearsay” and two others as containing forgeries. Another was described as “no more than hot air … a wild goose chase”.
“Some of the (computer) logs presented as evidence … showed that they were either from logs arising from the 2017 election or were outright forgeries,” she said.
Koome even raised the possibility of perjury, pointedly saying that two people who filed affidavits allegedly on behalf of polling stations agents had not spoken to the agents and attached falsified forms to their affidavits.
“Swearing to falsehoods is a criminal offence,” she told the court.
While she upheld the result announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, she did call for reforms, saying that a public split between the commissioners had undermined public confidence.
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