Raila Odinga filed an appeal before the Supreme Court on Monday August 22nd contesting the results of the Kenyan presidential election of August 9th, which gave him the loser behind outgoing Vice-President William Ruto. A historic figure in the opposition supported for this election by outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, Odinga had announced his intention to contest the results announced by the electoral commission (IEBC), which he had described as “parody”. According to these results, he is ahead of Vice-President William Ruto by around 233,000 votes (50.49% against 48.85%).
After an electronic version transmitted online Monday morning (link in English)the physical copy arrived in spectacular fashion shortly before 1 p.m., about an hour before the deadline: dozens of boxes of documents were trucked to the Nairobi High Court, then unloaded in front of the cameras and under cheers from Odinga supporters.
And the truth shall set Kenya free. Click the link to understand our petition against the enemies of justice in our land. https://t.co/0nKLkpKrjx #ThePeopleVsChebukati pic.twitter.com/o5epi8HUQ5
—Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) August 22, 2022
Kenya’s highest court has 14 days to render its decision and, if the poll is annulled, a new election must be held within 60 days.
On August 15, the proclamation of the results by the president of the IEBC gave rise to a split within this independent body in charge of organizing the ballot. Four of the seven commissioners had announced that they were rejecting the results a few minutes before their announcement, criticizing the president of the IEBC, Wafula Chebukati, for his management “opaque” and its lack of coordination. The Odinga camp affirms in particular that 140,028 ballots were not taken into account and that “this significantly affects the final results insofar as none of the (…) candidates reaches the constitutional threshold of 50% + 1 vote” to win the election in the first round. Other appeals will also be considered by the seven judges of the Supreme Court. A clerk told reporters that a petition filed by an individual had been received. Others are expected.
The August 9 elections were peaceful, but the announcement of the results sparked brief angry protests in some strongholds of Odinga, Kisumu (west) and the capital. Observers fear a protracted legal dispute could plunge the country into the post-election turmoil it has experienced in the past. Since 2002, all presidential elections in Kenya have been contested, sometimes resulting in bloody clashes. 77-year-old Raila Odinga, who was beaten in his four previous presidential bids, is familiar with these legal challenges, which he filed in 2013 and 2017.
If the Supreme Court upholds the results, William Ruto will, at 55, become Kenya’s fifth president since independence in 1963.