Azimio, IEBC Lawyers Clash Over Jose Camargo's Name On Form 34A

Camargo's name emerged after Raila Odinga's lawyer, Julie Soweto, presented a PowerPoint containing the Form 34A document that she claimed was uploaded on the IEBC portal. 

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Sep 2, 2022 - 13:55
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Azimio, IEBC Lawyers Clash Over Jose Camargo's Name On Form 34A
A collage of Azimio and IEBC lawyers at the Supreme Court. /FILE

Lawyers representing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition locked horns over Venezuelan national, Jose Gregorio Camargo Castellano's name on a suspicious Form 34A.

At the Supreme Court on Friday, September 2, Camargo's name emerged after Raila Odinga's lawyer, Julie Soweto, presented a PowerPoint containing the Form 34A document that she claimed was uploaded on the IEBC portal. 

The form belonged to the Gacharagu Primary School polling station in Muguru ward in Murang'a County. By way of his name appearing on the form, Soweto argued that he was solely responsible for interfering with the forms to change votes uploaded on the portal.

A collage of lawyer Julie Soweto and an ID card of Jose Camargo. /VIRALTEAKE

"At the top-hand left corner there, we have the name of one the Venezuelans Jose Camargo. This is the person who decided the President-elect of the country," she stated.

"We didn't make this up! We were told that we forged these forms, but this is how, My Lord, the staging was happening. This is on August 9 when we were told they (Venezuelans) did not have access to the system."

However, IEBC lawyer, Mahat Somane, explained that the form presented earlier had his name visible to the naked eye because the presiding officer had captured the Form 34A document on top of another document bearing his name.

“What Julie Soweto displayed in court with the name Jose Carmago was an overlay of Form 34A and not the original form,”

"The document relating to Jose Camargo has come from the QR register which is distributed to every polling station. The question that someone called Jose Camargo was interfering with the portal is actually not true, it's incorrect," he said, revealing the original Form 34A from the Gacharaigu Primary School polling station for the judges' scrutiny.

The Azimio lawyers had then moved to a scenario on the form whereby a signature was appended on Sunday, August 7, that is two days before the elections began.

"Siku ya nyani kufa, miti yote huteleza (The day a baboon dies is when trees prosper). In the Forms 34A, the 2nd UDA agent signed the form on August 7, 2022; before the election.

"Our point is that these forms might have been manufactured elsewhere," said Senior Counsel Philip Murgor.

However, their opponents argued that it was a clerical error and that the James Orengo-led team should desist from misleading the court.

"The form that was displayed does not have any security features, all that was meant to deceive and mislead," Fred Ngatia supported him.

Murgor then claimed that the foreigners accessed this server about 180 times with the longest being three hours and 16 minutes, adding that "Our elections were conducted from Venezuela, the Venezuelans decided who won, Mr Chebukati was just a mouthpiece."

Advocate Njoki Mboce further revealed that contrary to the requirement of the Constitution, IEBC abrogated their duty to conduct the IT component of the election and gave it entirely to Smartmatic

Advocate Njoki Mboce at the Supreme Court on September 2, 2022. /ZAKHEEM RAJAN

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