The opposition argued that the vote had been hacked and electronically manipulated to assure a victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Advertisement
The declared results had showed incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta defeating opposition leader Raila Odinga by a margin of about 1.4 million votes.
Meanwhile, supporters of Odinga poured into the streets, cheering, and waiting for another chance to elect their candidate.
“The Supreme court can not determine who rules this country, we will have no grand coalition and the election will be conducted by IEBC, we will not have the Opposition playing around with us over disbandment of IEBC”, a tough speaking DP Ruto said.
Many voters in the west of Kenya – Mr Odinga’s stronghold – and along the coast where there is also traditionally large support for the Opposition, feel neglected by the central government and shut out of power. The ruling leaves the authorities with little time to improve or reform the scandal-plagued election commission, which may throw doubt on the result. “We have fought, shed blood, lost lives and property in search of constitutional order”, the paper said. It said the election commission “committed illegalities and irregularities.in the transmission of results, substance of which will be given in the detailed judgment of the court” that will be published within 21 days.
In the August election, Uhuru Kenyatta was elected with a little more than 54 percent of the vote, but the voting itself was marred by reports of irregularities, leading to the Supreme Court decision to order a new vote within 60 days.
But, lawyers for the election commission and Kenyatta countered that errors were simply “clerical” mistakes and technicalities that did not affect the outcome of the vote. Already, Kenya has avoided the violence on a scale of that which followed Odinga’s defeat in the election of 2007, when 1,000 people were killed.
The two judges voting in opposition to the decision said the elections were free, fair, credible and watched by worldwide observers.
Now speaking to KFM, the Forum for Democratic Change president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu says Kenyatta’s stand makes him a true democrat.
Mr Ruto at the same time reiterated that the ruling Jubilee Party won the August 8 presidential elections fair and square.
Advertisement
Two judges of the Kenyan Supreme Court disagreed with the verdict reached by Justice Maraga and others but were in the minority.
