The unanimous Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the win of William Samoei Ruto as president-elect has left Raila Odinga and Martha Karua disagree with the judges’ finding.
The verdict delivered today served as a surprise for the Azimio One Kenya coalition faction who were optimistic about a ruling in favour of their petition.
“We have taken note of the decisions of the supreme court on the presidential election held on August 9, 2022. We have always stood for the rule of law and the constitution. In this regard, we respect the opinion of the court although we vehemently disagree with their decision today,” read part of the Raila statement.
Odinga thanked the legal team for defending the petition with what they claimed to be full of evidence.
The team has differed with the seven-judge bench ruling on dismissing all the nine grounds by use of what they termed as “unduly exaggerated language to refute their petitions.”
“This judgement is by no means the end of our movement, in fact, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to transform this country into a prosperous democracy where each and every Kenyan can find their full belonging,” Raila stated.
The Raila lead team thanked its supporters and Kenyans across the country for standing by their side all along.
“We will be communicating in the near future on our plans to continue our struggle for transparency, accountability and democracy,” revealed Raila.
Ruto was declared winner of Kenya’s presidential election on August 15 by the IEBC Chair Chebukati with a difference of about 233,000 garnering 50.49 per cent to Raila’s 48.85 per cent.
Odinga petitioned the results seeking to invalidate the results of the votes as declared and, in the process, filed a petition at the apex court on August 21, 2022 alleging fraud in the vote tallying process.