Lawyer Ahmednassir backs out of Ruto’s defense team ahead of Supreme Court showdown
Renowned senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi alias ‘Grand Mullah’ has backed out of Deputy President William Ruto’s defense team ahead of the much-awaited presidential petition at the Supreme Court.
According to Grandmullah, he will not be representing Ruto in any petition filed to nullify his victory due to conflicting interests.
Grandmullah said he fears outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta might raise objections citing client-advocate privilege given he was on his side when Raila Odinga successfully challenged his victory.
“In 2017, I acted for Uhuru against Raila. Now that Raila is challenging Ruto’s victory, obviously, Uhuru will object and raise Clients-Advocate privilege,” he stated.
Grandmullah has however offered to update Kenyans on his Twitter account, including predicting the petition outcome.
“I will run a Twitter commentary on the Supreme Court petition that will be filed by Hon Raila. I will appraise the strength and weaknesses of the case, the responses by the respondents, and the jurisprudential clues we should look for from the 7 judges. I will predict the decision.” the city lawyer stated on his Twitter.
The Azimio One Kenya coalition is expected to launch a presidential petition today at the Supreme Court challenging the declaration of Ruto as the President-elect.
Ruto was declared president-elect last week on Monday, scraping past Odinga with a margin of less than two percentage points, after an anxious days-long wait for results.
The outcome was challenged not only by Odinga’s camp but also, in a bizarre twist, by four out of seven commissioners at the election body that oversaw the vote.
“We want to see justice done so that peace can be found,” 77-year-old Odinga said at his Nairobi home after a meeting with the clergy.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati announced Ruto as president-elect on Monday last week despite four IEBC commissioners hastily distancing themselves from the results.
