Azimio lawyers hiding arguments or there's no case

Since Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga announced that he will challenge President-elect William Ruto's victory, I am yet to see probable grounds for annulling that win. This is not to say they don't exist but they may require more effort to find and put them together.

Back to the 2017 petition, the irregularities and illegalities were glaring. As you followed the case, you could actually see how and why the election failed to reach the standards. They were forms with no security features, differing figures and undeclared results. The difference between the results then and now, is that in 2017, the presiding officers keyed in results before uploading the physical 34As. This time, the form was uploaded as is.

The same illegalities and irregularities could still be at play but it would require greater scrutiny. 46,229 forms are not a joke. Most entities that decided to do independent tallies struggled even with tens of hired staff. Many only waited until the fewer 34bs were uploaded.

For Azimio, we are yet to be told how many of the 46,229 forms they got from their agents. How many have glaring differences from what was declared in the final IEBC tally and how significantly would it shift the numbers?

Allegations have been made that the IEBC system was hacked or some people had unauthorised access. The arguments here are that some forms were changed, some uploaded blank and some had their tallies changed before being re-uploaded. IT experts say there will always be footprints. However, this being an IEBC system, the request to access these footprints in the name of log files may have to be made in court. So, unless some insiders provide this information beforehand, it may end up being termed an evidence fishing expedition.

When the four dissenting commissioners called a press-conference following their decision to disassociate themselves with the results that were declared by Chairman Wafula chebukati, I expected more. Their comprehensive statement was not comprehensive at all. They hinted at mathematical absurdity.

Their presentation of that absurdity completely watered down their submission turning IEBC Vice chair into a butt of jokes. There is a feeling they are keeping back the more useful information.

It is obvious that Azimio's argument in court will begin with the validity of the declaration that William Ruto is the President-elect minus majority of the commissioners. I would also be interested if the close to a week verification process at Bomas revealed glaring errors and how those errors would affect the final tallies.

To a layman like me, unless the Azimio team is keeping cards close to their chest, there may actually be no case.

The writer is a news anchor at Radio Maisha. [email protected]