5 Instances That Could Cost Raila In Presidential Petition

Moreover, Cherera's mathematical blunder, which she still has not issued a statement on, could be used as a weapon by the Kenya Kwanza faction against Azimio's petition. In her words, the vote tally was in excess of 0.01% which translates to over 140,000 votes, a tally that Viral Tea questioned and denied.

Election Observers Countering Commissioners Rejecting Ruto's Win

The Elections Observation Group (ELOG) took the IEBC's side over Chebukati's decision to announce the results, with a warning that if the announcement was delayed, it could have led to grave consequences.

Additionally, ELOG underlined that the results concurred with their projections following their participation in observing the voter tallying at the polling stations. As per the observer's analysis, Ruto was projected to win the August 9 polls in the first round at 50.7 per cent which was 0.3 per cent higher than that announced by Chebukati.

"ELOG received, verified and analyzed observation reports from 99% of its PVT observers from 990 polling stations. These observers arrived at their assigned polling stations at 5:30 am and remained there throughout voting and counting until the results for the presidential election for the polling station were announced and posted.

"PVT observers reported the official results as announced by the presiding officers for sampled polling stations via coded text messages using their mobile phones," it stated.

UDA Reporting to IEBC Over Govt Interference During Polls

United Democratic Alliance (UDA) chief agent, Kithure Kindiki, wrote to the IEBC implicating President Uhuru Kenyatta in a scheme to use public officers to interfere with the electoral process.

Kindiki argued that police officers and national government administrators were being used to compromise the August 9 votes in favour of Raila. In addition, Kindiki revealed that the outgoing Head of State committed an electoral offence not only by publicly endorsing a presidential candidate but also by allegedly using state resources to fund his campaign.

"Section 16 of the Public Officers Ethics Act (2003) requires complete political neutrality by all public officers and prohibits them from acting as agents for or furthering the interests of a political party or candidate in an election," Kindiki argued.

Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga during the 'handshake' in 2018. /BBC

The same claims were made by Ruto when he accused the government of allegedly arm-twisting administrators and law enforcement officials to ensure Raila wins the elections, failure to which they would lose their jobs.

It is worth it to note that the same state patronage had led to the disbandment of the BBI.

IEBC Portal

One of the most significant changes to the 2022 general elections compared to 2017 was the introduction of a public portal whereby Kenyans across the country could download 46,229 Form 34As and 291 Form 34Bs, and tally the results themselves.

"Even as we came to Bomas, it is only someone from the moon who didn't know the results. Let's be honest with one another.

"Any institution that bothered to tally the results came to the same conclusion. With a simple calculator, you would tally the results," Ruto told journalists after he was duly elected as Kenya's 5th Head of State.

Many Kenyans across the country and local, as well as international media houses, spent time downloading the forms and carrying out their independent tallying results, and a majority of them pointed out Ruto's eventual victory. What Chebukati insinuated, in effect, was that if errors are found in Form 34A, the officials who compiled them would be held directly responsible.

Unlike in 2017, when returning officers were temporary staff who could get away with malpractices, this time around, they are permanent employees. And they will each be held liable if errors are noted in the stations they were in charge.

In the second, Chebukati appeared to aim a dagger at both the Judiciary and the media, who had put him on the spot over his handling of the 2017 election, which the Supreme Court nullified. Although the outcome of the poll was not disputed, the judges said the process had neither been transparent nor verifiable.

By putting all the results in a portal, which Chebukati assured all and sundry would remain immutable, he had, in one blow, ensured that the presidential election complies with the Supreme Court ruling. This, therefore, makes it difficult for the Supreme Court to nullify this year’s election unless one has earthshaking evidence.

Defence Team

Agano Party leader David Mwaure has already declared that he would oppose any petition challenging Ruto's win. To make sure, Mwaure disclosed that his party has evidence that some goons who tried to interfere with the tallying exercise at Bomas are linked to Azimio.

"We in Agano cannot sit back and see schemes to disrupt the verification, lies and violence being allowed to take place in this nation. Our chief agent and others have evidence of goons who came in to the tallying floor, disguised as observers but working as agents of Azimio and were carrying with them documents which they were getting from Azimio Chief Agent and corner.