NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 26 – President-Elect William Ruto has filed a 256-page response to a petition by Azimio’s Raila Odinga, asking the Supreme Court to dismiss his petition because he is a perennial loser seeking a hand-shake to share government.
The petition is in response to Odinga’s petition filed last week challenging Ruto’s victory, on grounds that the election was bungled by the electoral commission to favour the Deputy President.
But Ruto has dismissed the claim, saying Raila is known to dispute all presidential election outcomes so as to force a handshake that results to a coalition government, citing a 2012 pact with the later Mwai Kibaki and 2017 when he shook hands with outgoing President who supported him in August polls.
“The first common feature that underlies Odinga’s thirty-year pattern of strikingly similar acts after every presidential election is disingenuous disputation of presidential election results as a means of forcing the winner to share power through unconventional and extra-constitutional government arrangements popularly known as handshake,” Ruto said in an affidavit filed by his lawyers Friday.
It is reported that Ruto has retained 54 lawyers to defend his victory in nine petitions filed in the Supreme Court.
In his petition, Odinga describes Ruto’s win as a travesty, insisting that he is the one who won.
He now wants the seven-judge bench to nullify Ruto’s win and declare him president-elect or order for a rerun even though he has vowed not to take part unless the electoral commission is reconstituted, accusing its Chairman Wafula Chebukati of colluding with Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to deny him victory.
Odinga, 77 lost his fifth bid for the presidency by a narrow margin of around 230,000 votes — less than two percentage points.
Although polling day passed off peacefully, the announcement of the results a week ago sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds and there are fears a drawn-out dispute may lead to violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.
Since 2002, no presidential election in Kenya has gone uncontested, with this year’s outcome also causing a rift within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) which oversaw the poll.
Ruto said in his response Friday that Odinga was so used to disputing election results, that he demands the reconstitution of electoral officials each time.
Raila’s petition is a “tragicomedy akin to William Shakespeare’s famous about a story full of sound and fury signifying nothing” and controversies that are “much ado about nothing.”
In seeking to convince judges to dismiss Odinga’s petition, Ruto said “Kenyans have already moved on from the electioneering euphoria as evidenced by the peace and calmness that followed the declaration of the results of the election and the reopening of most businesses.”
Ruto’s response to the petition includes a certificate that IEBC issued to him as the President-Elect, a Gazette Notice confirming the same, statements by observers who gave the election a clean bill of health as well as numerous statements by Odinga and the electoral commission Chairman before, during and after the elections.
But in a 72-page summarised petition, Odinga alleges that IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati failed to tally around 140,000 votes.
As a result, Ruto “did not meet the constitutional threshold of 50% plus 1 of the valid votes cast” — a requirement for him to be declared the winner.
Judges now have 14 days to issue a ruling. If they order an annulment, a new vote must be held within 60 days.
The final verdict will be issued by the Supreme Court on September 5.
