Supreme Court releases ruling on Uhuru’s petitions

By Wahome Thuku

Nairobi, Kenya: Supreme Court on Tuesday released a detailed judgment on petitions that challenged Uhuru Kenyatta’s election as the fourth president of Kenya.

The ruling was not read in the open court but Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said the ruling will be made available to the public in booklets.

The CJ said the National Council for Law Reporting will disseminate judgment to the public by producing booklets while the Judicial Training Institute will disseminate the judgment through public forums.

The six Supreme Court judges will be explaining in details the reasoning that led to their validation of the March 4, election of Uhuru and why they dismissed two of the petitions one filed by CORD Presidential candidate Raila Odinga who was Uhuru’s main challenger in the elections.

The judgment dealt with the four questions that the court set for determination.

One question was whether Uhuru and William Ruto were validly elected and constitutionally declared winners by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

The court held on March 30, that the two were validly elected.

They also answered the second issue that the presidential election was conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner and whether it was in compliance with the Constitution and all other relevant laws.

The court also ruled on the third issue holding that rejected votes should not be included in determining the final tally of votes in favour of each candidate.

The judges, however, ordered on the fourth issue that every party should pay its own costs of the petitions.

Read the judgement here