The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Jubilee Party have said they are ready to counter NASA’s presidential petition challenging the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as President-elect.
In what promises to be an epic court battle to either validate or invalidate President Kenyatta’s re-election, a team of lawyers appointed by the ruling party and the electoral commission for their defence, say they are raring to defend the authenticity of the August 8 poll.
A source within the pool of lawyers told Saturday Standard that NASA’s case will be hinged on Raila Odinga’s claims of hacking of the IEBC servers and inconsistent results.
He said that from the onset, the Opposition has been contradicting itself and exaggerating the figures in favour of its candidate, Raila Odinga.
“If you look at the first demand they sent to the commission, they claimed that the results had been cooked. For example, in Nyamira County, they indicated that Raila got 2,411,731 whereas the total number of registered voters is 278,853,” he said.
IEBC’s defence on the credibility of the results it announced will be critical to the case.
Raila has accused Jubilee of hacking into the IEBC database and manipulating election results to ensure that the incumbent wins.
The former Prime Minister said according to NASA’s tallying, he had polled a total of 8.1 million votes against Uhuru Kenyatta’s 7.2 million.
Raila produced logs which he said were evidence of how and when the database was hacked into, calling the digital break-in the biggest fraud in Kenya’s history.
But the lawyer said IEBC has proof that its system was not infiltrated and the electoral forms will be availed to authenticate that the results relayed and announced, represent the will of the people.
“If you look at it as a lay man, the majority law makers in the National Assembly are from Jubilee and the same is replicated in the Senate. Jubilee also infiltrated areas that were presumably the Opposition’s strongholds. Thus, there is no way Raila can claim he won,” he said.
He said IEBC complied with the law strictly and that NASA should respect the will of the people.
NASA, Jubilee and the IEBC have assembled the best legal minds in the country to argue their case before the Supreme Court.
Jubilee’s defence will be led by Fred Ngatia, who was one of President Kenyatta’s agents at IEBC’s national tallying centre at Bomas of Kenya. NASA’s legal team is headed by Siaya Senator James Orengo.
“We are ready and waiting to see if they have a strong case. If there are a lot of allegations, then we will have to work hard to tell the public the truth. If they have a weak case, then it’s easier for us,” the source added.
