Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party flagbearer Raila Odinga has rejected the results of the August 9 presidential election in which UDA’s William Ruto was declared the winner.
Addressing the media on Tuesday afternoon, Raila indicated he would be challenging the results at the Supreme Court terming Ruto’s declaration as President-Elect “null and void.”
The ODM chief accused Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati of defiling the Constitution and election regulations by declaring Ruto the winner.
"What we saw yesterday (Monday) was a travesty of the laws of Kenya by Wafula Chebukati and a minority of IEBC commissioners,” Raila lamented.
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He went on, “The figures announced by Wafula Chebukati are null and void and must be quashed by a court of law. In our view there is no legally declared president-elect. Chebukati’s announcement purporting to announce a winner is a nullity. He acted with gross impunity and in total disregard of the Constitution and our laws."
He also accused the IEBC boss of exercising tyranny by announcing the presidential results at the Bomas of Kenya venue despite dissent by four of the seven IEBC commissioners.
"The law is clear on the role of the chairperson of the IEBC. The law does not vest in the chairperson the powers of a dictator to rule the IEBC unilaterally," Raila said.
He added, "The IEBC is structured as a democratic institution in which decisions must be taken either by consensus or by a vote of the majority. The chairperson and a tiny minority of commissioners have no legal authority to take weighty decisions and proclaim them as the rulings of the IEBC."
Raila claims Chebukati denied the dissenting IEBC commissioners access to the tallied presidential results before going ahead to declare Ruto the victor on Tuesday evening.
“We understand that Mr. Chebukati alone had access to the tally of the presidential vote.
He denied all the commissioners access to that information until he suddenly appeared before the commissioners in the late afternoon to present them with a fait accompli.”
Raila called for calm among his supporters as the Azimio La Umoja legal team seeks legal redress as it seeks to get the results announced by Chebukati annulled by the apex court.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I want to repeat that we totally and without reservations reject the presidential results announced yesterday by Mr. Chebukati,” he added.
Raila praised IEBC Vice Chair Juliana Cherera, alongside commissioners Justus Nyang'anya, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi for repudiating Chebukati’s results and walking out of Bomas terming their act “heroic”.
Chebukati declared Ruto President-Elect with 7,176,141 votes, accounting for 50.49 per cent of total votes cast to beat Raila Odinga who garnered 6,942,930 votes representing 48.85 per cent in a ceremony marred by tension and violence.
Roots Party aspirant George Wajackoyah bagged 61,969 votes representing 0.23 per cent while Agano’s David Mwaure got 31,987 votes representing 0.44 percent of total votes cast.