By Sarah Omondi
As Kenyans await Monday’s Supreme Court judgement on the 2022 Presidential elections petition, the seven-judge-bench is expected to address nine key issues that will determine whether or not President elect William Ruto was duly elected or not.
Hearing of the petition started on Wednesday with the petitioners spending the first day to argue out their case before the respondents made their submissions the following day with both sides responding to each other’s gaps Friday when the hearing ended.
The judges yesterday retreated to prepare a report that will form the September 5 judgment that will determine whether swearing in of Dr Ruto will continue or Kenyans will go back to the ballot to elect their President.
They are Chief Justice Martha Koome, her deputy Philomena Mwilu and Justices Mohamed Ibrahim, Dr Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u, Isaac Lenaola and William Ouko.
The court will establish whether there was interference with uploading and submission of forms 34A from polling stations to the electoral agency’s portal, whether there was any difference in the forms uploaded on portal, those issued to agents and those received at the national tallying centre.
Chief Justice Martha Koome said they will also find out whether the technology deployed by IEBC met standards of integrity, security and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results and if IEBC’s verification, tallying and declaration of results in accordance with the constitution.
Also, the judges will establish if Dr Ruto attained the 50 percent plus one vote of the total votes cast in line with Article 138 (4) of the Constitution and if the postponement of elections in Kakamega, Mombasa and parts of West Pokot, Meru, Kitui and Nairobi resulted in voter suppression.
The court will additionally find out whether there were unexplained discrepancies between votes cast for Presidential candidates and other positions and whether there were irregularities and illegalities of a magnitude that could affect the final result for Presidential election.
Should the court uphold Dr Ruto’s win, he will be sworn in a week later but if nullified, a fresh election will be done in two months’ time (early November).
They may deliver a joint decision or opt to do so individually with the winning side required to have four judges agree with their submissions in court.
