Kenyan presidential contender Raila Odinga’s claims of massive vote rigging in the just concluded presidential elections have been dashed with judicial finality.
On Monday the Kenyan Supreme Court upheld the Aug. 9 election of William Ruto as president in a unanimous decision.
Chief Justice Martha Koome in a scathing judgement that swept aside opposition leader Raila Odinga’s accusations of cheating, said:
“This is a unanimous decision of the court … This court upholds the election of the first respondent (William Ruto) as the president-elect,”
Koome, who heads the seven-member court, handed down the judgement during a televised ruling.
Ruto, 55, has been serving as outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s deputy since 2013 but fell out with Kenyatta after the last election. Kenyatta formed an alliance with his long-time rival Odinga instead.
Ruto, a former roadside chicken-seller whose campaign defeated Kenya’s two most powerful political families, takes the helm of a Western ally in an unstable region, which also hosts the regional headquarters of many global companies and organisations.
Kenya has itself seen repeated instances of deadly election-related violence, often along ethnic lines. Citizens are watching anxiously for Odinga’s first address, to see if he calls for protests or accepts the verdict, as he has previously promised.
Koome’s judgement left no ambiguity about the court’s opinion of the key arguments brought by Odinga’s team and other complainants, whose cases were combined with Odinga’s.
She dismissed two affidavits alleging that polling stations results forms had been tampered with as “double hearsay” and two others as containing forgeries. Another was described as “no more than hot air … a wild goose chase”.
