The Supreme Court of Kenya will convene a pre-trial conference on petitions seeking to overturn the presidential election results.
What’s happening
Last Thursday, nine applications were filed in an attempt to invalidate William Ruto’s victory. Raila Odinga had rejected the election results, claiming that the declaration was illegal. He noted disagreements among electoral commissioners as well as the chairman’s reluctance to explain how he arrived at the final tally.
Odinga polled 6.9 million votes against Ruto’s 7.1 million votes.
The Issues
The commission will decide whether the chairman of the electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, broke the law by pronouncing Mr. Ruto the victor of the race. Other issues include a request by Mr. Ruto to have particular electoral commission officers removed from the petition brought by his opponent, Raila Odinga.
The courts will also decide whether to approve orders for vote scrutiny and recounting, as requested by Mr. Odinga’s alliance. It will also assess the division in the electoral commission, with one party seeking to have the election annulled and another arguing that it should be upheld.
Seven judges will preside over the petition emerging from the August 9 election will attend the session.
What you should know.
William Ruto was declared the winner of Kenya’s elections and Raila Odinga, the opponent is rejecting the election results. In 2017, Raila Odinga, a five-time contestant successfully appealed elections results leading the supreme court to overturn it.