NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22 – Azimio La Umoja – One Keya coalition Presidential candidate Raila Odinga has described the petition challenging President-elect William Ruto’s win as a ‘do or die battle.”
Speaking at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) after filing the petition, Odinga stated that there were many people who tried to stop them from going to court.
“A short while ago, we successfully filed our presidential election petition at the Supreme Court of Kenya. The action we have taken is perfectly in line with the stipulations of our constitution on resolving disputes,” he stated.
“The presidential election results that were announced represent the continued struggle, pitting the forces for democracy and good governance against the corruption cartels that are so determined to take control of the government and this country.”
Odinga further hit out at Ruto accusing him of buying elected leaders through dubious means so that he could take control of Parliament.
“The corruption cartels are prepared to compromise electoral systems, bribe electoral officials, make security officials look other ways or even kill so that they can file their way to power and their ill-gotten wealth. We believe this is what happened in this election. For the sake of Kenyan’s future, the corruption network must not only be stopped but must also be crashed,” he stated.
Odinga led the Azimio Coalition in lodging a presidential petition on Monday at the Supreme Court challenging the outcome of the August 9 election in what he called a fight for “democracy and good governance.”
Hundreds of supporters cheered as dozens of boxes of evidence were unloaded from a truck outside the Supreme Court.
“We have enough evidence that it is us who won the election. We didn’t have an election we can be proud of,” he stated during the Press Conference.
The petition largely places the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wafula Chebukati at the centre of the dispute.
In the petition, Azimio contended that 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.
Senior lawyer and Siaya Governor Elect James Orengo who is set to represent Odinga at the Supreme Court pointed out that the coalition’s petition is seeking both a re-run and a retallying of the August 9th Presidential Election.
Orengo stated that in case the court orders a fresh election, they will not take part in the polls presided over by Chebukati.
“I have participated in many petitions but his one, I can tell you, is a bombshell and we’ve got so many smoking guns. The conclusion is that we are going to have a determination in favor of Raila Odinga,” he stated.
“We think that the election amounted to a civilian coup… we are very confident; we’ve got many smoking guns and I think at the conclusion we’re going to have determination in favour of Raila Odinga.”
