On Monday, August 22, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga officially filed a presidential petition seeking to invalidate national returning officer Wafula Chebukati’s declaration of William Ruto as president-elect.
Raila, who was accompanied by his running mate Martha Kaua and other leaders allied to Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party, arrived at the Supreme Court a few minutes before the 2:00 pm deadline carrying lots of evidence in a lorry.
In their 72-page presidential petition, the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party legal team listed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), its members, and President-elect William Ruto as a correspondent.
The petition singles out commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, who declared Ruto the winner, asserting that he “set out to subvert the sovereign will of the people of Kenya and overthrow the constitutional order” by declaring results that had not been completely tallied and verified.
This prompted the Wafula-Chebuykati-led team to immediately convene a meeting in Nairobi to prepare for the response as provided for in the law.
However, in a statement, the commission’s chairman Wafula Chebukati said armed goons attempted to attack officials from the IEBC who were preparing responses to the presidential petition.
“Today Monday, August 22 at around 8:30 pm an organized group of goons wielding crude weapons attempted to attack IEBC personnel preparing a response to presidential election petition at a premise within Nairobi,” IEBC said in a Tweet.
According to a press release by the commission, the incident happened at around 8:30 pm at an undisclosed premise in the country’s capital city Nairobi.
While condemning the incident, the electoral agency called upon the Inspector of Police to guarantee the security of its staff and bring to an end the blatant abuse of the rule of law.
“The commission condemns this act of hooliganism and intimidation and calls upon the Inspector of Police (IG) to bring to an end this blatant abuse of the rule of law,” the statement adds.
