UDA Sec Gen Veronica files petition to throw out Azimio’s petition at Supreme Court
By K24 Editorial, August 26, 2022United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party Secretary General Veronica Maina now wants the Supreme Court to dismiss Raila Odinga’s petition which is challenging William Ruto’s win and to uphold IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati’s decision to declare him (Ruto) as the President-elect.
In her response to the petition by Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua, she says that August 9, 2022, election was free, fair and met every metric of credible, transparent and verifiable polls.
Maina states that Ruto’s election was against all odds such as the deployment of government officers by President Uhuru Kenyatta to decampaign him and harassment of his supporters and agents by police.
“In the weeks prior to the election, the Head of State implemented a widespread and systematic plan to engage Chiefs and County Commissioners in extortion and voter suppression tactics,” she narrates.
“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations based on ‘orders from above’ undertook a series of false arrests, confiscation of electronic equipment from people related to the party and the candidate, and
illicit surveillance of supporters of Ruto. Targets were politicians, IT personnel, Party and Secretariat premises and technical staff,” Maina claims.
She argues that given President Kenyatta’s succession plan for Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga, the President emboldened Cabinet Secretaries to publicly pledge their loyalty to Odinga.
In an attack on Odinga, the SG informs the apex court that he has lost a general election five times and has never accepted election results.
“He always attempts to forge a position of personal power by fomenting violence or forcing the courts to entertain his complaints, even where they are fanciful or false. The substance and purpose of the current petition are no different,” she says.
Maina further claims that “the state apparatus, controlled by the Commander-in-Chief, who has doubled up as the Chairperson of Azimio coalition, has unashamedly spared no effort to ensure that the 9th
Respondent (Ruto) is not sworn in as the fifth President of the Republic of Kenya”.
In regard to Odinga’s request relief involving the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and its
conduct of forensic audits of various electronic devices, Maina says the DCI is partisan and was weaponized throughout the campaign period and tallying process.
On scrutiny of the votes and Odinga’s request to be declared presidential winner, she says the same is a question of constitutionality. She also says this may only be effected if the winner has not committed an election offence.
“The court cannot adjudicate Odinga’s request without considering that he does not come to court with clean hands. Ruto through his political party, the WSR Presidential Campaign Secretariat have consistently raised concerns about the blatant use of state officers on the campaign trail. In this regard, the outgoing President has with bravado encouraged state officers and public servants, from Cabinet Secretaries, to Chiefs, to County Commissioners, to engage in intimidation and harassment of supporters of Ruto,” she claims.
She also accuses Odinga of making falsehoods in court in regard to the allegations of electoral malpractices and irregularities.
“The election was conducted substantially in compliance with the applicable Constitutional and statutory principles,” says the UDA SG, while also defending IEBC.
“There was no false declaration of the outcome of the presidential election as alleged. There was compliance with the principles enunciated in Articles 81 (e) (iii) (iv) and iv of the Constitution. The purported disowning of the results by the four dissenting Commissioners has no basis in law as Wafula Chebukati as the Returning Officer is appropriately clothed with jurisdiction to declare presidential election results,” Maina says.
According to her, the alleged denouncing of the final results by some of the commissioners was an improper attempt to overturn the order/process envisaged by the Constitution and Elections Act.
It borders on the abdication of duty and is untenable, she says.
On removal of Chebukati from the chairmanship of the Commission, Maina says construing the Commission to include only the commissioners “would absurdly imply that the commissioners would be under a strict and personal duty to count the votes, collate, tally and announce the
same at each of the 46232 polling stations, 290 constituency tallying centres as well as the national tallying centre”.
“This reality is humanly impractical. It is disingenuous for Odinga and Karua to assert that the IEBC chairman “in isolation and by himself” carried out the task that involved hundreds of thousands of personnel, ” she argued.