Uhuru Kenyatta questions contradicting Supreme Court decisions in the 2017 and 2022 petitions
Uhuru Kenyatta questions contradicting Supreme Court decisions in the 2017 and 2022 petitions after it upheld William Ruto’s win.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has questioned the standards that the Supreme Court judges applied to uphold his deputy William Ruto’s election victory.
Uhuru addressed the nation hours after the Supreme Court upheld the election victory of his successor, Deputy President William Ruto.
In a speech on Monday, September 5, the outgoing Head of State addressed the election and the Supreme Court’s decision, but he did not offer his congratulations to the president-elect.
He questioned the judiciary’s consistency in its decisions regarding the presidential petitions.
He specifically pointed out that the 2017 polls were invalidated due to the electoral process and said that the 2022 decision was more heavily based on the numbers.
“We must ask ourselves, is it about numbers or is it about the process? Which of these two is it? Can our institutions rule one way in one election and another way in another election without scrutiny?” he posed.
The outgoing Head of State noted that the court’s decision needed to be scrutinized so that the country’s democracy is made stronger.
“True belief and true judgments must correspond to the actual state of affairs but do our constitutional institutions meet these thresholds?
“While we must appreciate these institutions, we must hold them to account. Their truth has to be consistent and coherent. This is the only way we build our democracy.”
However, he maintained that the Supreme Court was the only body mandated to make a determination on the outcome, adding that he would respect the decision of the seven-judge-bench.
Notably, Uhuru did not congratulate the President-elect for his win in the August 9 polls that was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Raila Odinga who was the primary petitioner accepted the Supreme Court verdict but questioned the “tone and language” used by the judges while delivering the ruling.
He wondered how the seven-judge bench found against them on all nine grounds and occasions resulted in “unduly exaggerated to refute our language”.
“Our lawyers preferred irrefutable evidence, and the facts were on our side. Unfortunately, the judges saw it otherwise,” he said.
Raila’s legal team led by Siaya governor James Orengo expressed their disappointment in the verdict by the court even as he opined that the judgment to dismiss their petition was based on ideologies rather than the evidence presented in court.
“The court should have done was to order IEBC to open its servers with other election material presented before it. On the matter of intrusion by the Venezuelans, you can note that the court avoided speaking about it.
“What I can say is that they focused on ideological issues rather than looking at other issues on the part of the IEBC. For example, the 50 percent plus 1 was ideological,” he stated.
Also read,
Raila accepts the Supreme Court verdict but questions the “tone and language” used
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Uhuru Kenyatta makes an unpublicized return to Nairobi amid the Supreme Court ruling
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