The Supreme Court has today upheld president-elect William Ruto’s victory after first rejecting several of the petition’s major arguments.
In a unanimous ruling, the seven-judge panel chaired by Chief Justice Martha Koome, rejected one of the key claims made against the ICT system.
“We declare the election of the 1st Respondent as president-elect to be valid under Article 143 of the constitution,” she said.
Additionally, it was determined that Ruto received 50 per cent plus one vote as reported by the electoral commission.
The presidential candidate for Azimio, Raila Odinga, argued in the appeal contesting Ruto’s victory that the electoral commission’s use of technology had serious flaws that prevented him from winning.
Additionally, he asserted that the electoral commission rigged the final vote count in favour of Ruto, who was ultimately pronounced the victor.
Odinga had complained about the Kenya Integrated Management System (KIEMS) kits that the IEBC had placed in the 46,229 voting places, along with seven other petitioners.
However, the court determined in its ruling that the kits malfunctioned in 235 polling places, 86,899 voters were given the opportunity to cast their ballots manually and the necessary Form 34A was submitted.
According to Koome, “the register of voters was used at the election without any apparent irregularities,” adding that “this happened successfully in Kibwezi West Constituency and sections of Kakamega county.”
No evidence satisfying the necessary standard of proof of access to the system by unauthorized persons was presented by the petitioners, the court ruled unanimously on the question of the Smartmatic company, which the IEBC had hired to administer the technological side of the poll.
Koome claimed that since IEBC was unable to hire the firm themselves, it was free to do so.
“The scrutiny report prepared by the Registrar of the Court did not reveal any security breaches of the IEBC Result Transmission System,” Koome said.
The electoral agency opened the voters’ register in time for 30 days and corrected it before election day, according to the court’s ruling on the voters’ register.
“The KPMG audited the register, and we are satisfied that the inconsistencies and inaccuracies identified during the audit were somewhat successfully addressed,” Koome said.