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Kenya’s Supreme Court will on Tuesday begin hearing challenge declaring Ruto as election winner

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Kenya’s Supreme Court will on Tuesday begin hearing a petition challenging the declaration of Deputy President, William Ruto as winner of the August 9 general elections.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua are among nine petitioners who are challenging Ruto’s victory over allegations of irregularities in the electoral process.

After the ballot box, the battle to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta moves to the Supreme Court.

This after Odinga rejected the declaration of Ruto as winner of the August 9th presidential race.

“What we say yesterday was a travesty and a blatant disregard of the constitutio,”says Odinga.

In his petition, Odinga claims the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) committed massive irregularities in order to tilt the balance in favour of Ruto.

“The nature of the case that we do have is ….that was needed,” says Odinga’s legal advisor Paul Mwangi.

Ruto, who is named as a respondent in the petition by Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua, wants the court to throw out the petition and declare that he was legally elected.

“Our papers are simple, dismiss the entirety ….with costs,” says Ruto’s legal advisor Dr Korir Sing’Oei.

The split in the IEBC continued with the commissioners filing separate affidavits. The renegade commissioners accused Chairperson of the Commission Wafula Chebukati of acting unilaterally.

While Chebukati and two other commissioners allege that Odinga and President Kenyatta’s allies including former Attorney General Amos Wako and the Secretary-General of Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party, Raphael Tuju, sought to have the commission declare Odinga winner or moderate the results to warrant a run off between Odinga and Ruto. A request the commissioners say they declined.

The Supreme Court will have two weeks to hear and determine the petition, with a final verdict expected on the 5th of September.

VIDEO: Lawyers prepare to face off in Kenya’s presidential elections court case 

 

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