Kenya’s Supreme Court has allowed the opposition to have access to the electoral commission’s computer servers and documents used in the counting, tallying and declaration of the presidential election results.
The court on Monday began hearing a petition filed by the opposition. They are challenging the commission’s declaration that Uhuru Kenyatta won the election with 54% of the votes against opposition leader, Raila Odinga‘s 46%.
The court ruled that both the opposition and the ruling party would be allowed limited access to the electoral commission’s servers and the electronic voter identification kits to verify the authenticity of the results and the documents used to declare those results.
On the first day of the presidential elections petition, the National Super Alliance, Nasa, had five hours to build their case against Kenyatta’s win.
They are sought to prove that technology was used to abet massive electoral fraud. “The cracks of our observation my lords is that to the extent, the second respondent is invalid,” says opposition lawyer Otiende Amollo.
The opposition had a major win earlier in the day, when the court allowed its application to access the commission’s servers. It is not just technology, Nasa argues that the incumbent used public resources and civil servants, in particular ministers, to tilt the outcome in his favour.
“If laws that are supposed to guide our conduct during the elections were violated, vitiate such an election,” says opposition’s lawyer Okong’o Omogeni.
The opposition wants the presidential elections nullified over what it terms a fatally flawed process. A ruling will be delivered on Friday this week. If the opposition wins, then another election will be held in 60 days. If they lose, Kenyatta will be sworn in within a week.
Monday 28 August 2017 20:15
Sarah Kimani
