Kenyans eagerly awaited a Supreme Court ruling on Monday on petitions challenging the outcome of August’s presidential election, with weeks of political uncertainty looming if the election is annulled.
Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner of the hard-fought race, coming to victory by a narrow margin of less than two percentage points over Raila Odinga, a veteran opposition politician now backed by the ruling party.
Odinga filed a petition in Kenya’s top court last month alleging fraud in the counting of votes and claiming he had “enough evidence” to show he actually won the Aug. 9 election, which is considered one of the most expensive elections in Africa.
Though election day was peaceful, the results sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds, and there are fears a protracted dispute could deepen widespread economic malaise and lead to violence in a country plagued by post-war unrest in the past elections was plagued.
“We’ve already wasted a lot of time and money, so we’re going to waste (even more) time and resources when we return to the elections,” said Anne Karanja, a fruit vendor in the capital, Nairobi.
“I voted, but I feel like I can’t vote again,” she told AFP, echoing the frustration of many Kenyans.
The court will consider whether any irregularities were serious enough to annul the election, as was the case in the August 2017 presidential election, which Odinga also challenged.
Judges have spent the last two weeks going through boxes of evidence to determine whether the technology used by the electoral commission meets “standards of integrity, auditability, security and transparency.”
– economic downturn –
After the 2017 annulment, the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission was under intense pressure to issue a clean poll.
But this year’s election result sparked a rift within the IEBC itself, with four of its seven commissioners accusing Chairman Wafula Chebukati of running an “opaque” process.
Odinga’s 72-page petition claims hackers broke into the IEBC servers and uploaded manipulated result forms. His lawyers also claim Chebukati failed to count around 140,000 votes.
Chebukati has denied the allegations, insisting he had fulfilled his duties under the country’s law despite facing “intimidation and harassment.”
After examining the transparency of the election, the court will finally decide whether Ruto has reached the constitutional threshold of 50 percent plus one of the valid votes cast.
If judges order an annulment, a new vote must be held within 60 days, but the lead up to a new election is likely to be mixed.
Odinga has insisted that each new poll must be overseen by a new chair. The 77-year-old boycotted the court-ordered repetition of 2017 and accused the IEBC of lacking credibility.
No outcome in Kenya’s presidential election has gone unchallenged since 2002, and many fear a lengthy electoral process and the resulting uncertainty will only worsen the country’s cost-of-living crisis.
Moses Mungai said his flower shop – already badly hit by the Covid pandemic – had taken another blow as Nairobi’s streets were deserted for several days after the election.
“People weren’t coming out of their homes,” the 55-year-old said, telling AFP he expected similar scenes to unfold after Monday’s verdict.
“People fear there will be skirmishes. They will close (shops) and then wait until everything is ok.”
– disillusionment –
At around 65 percent, voter turnout was significantly lower than in the August 2017 election, which observers said reflected growing disillusionment among citizens.
Both Odinga and Ruto – who was named as a defendant in the case – assembled huge legal teams.
Odinga, who previously said he was cheated of victory in the 2007, 2013 and 2017 elections, has described the legal battle as a fight “for democracy and good governance”.
Ruto, in turn, has asked the court to dismiss the petition, accusing Odinga of trying “to get another bite in the cherry through a court-enforced replay”.
During the election campaign, both men pledged to resolve disputes in court rather than on the streets.
But the fear of violence persists.
Dozens of protesters were killed by police in the 2017 poll. Kenya’s worst electoral violence came after the 2007 election, when more than 1,100 people died in politically motivated clashes between rival tribes.
If the court upholds the results, Ruto will become Kenya’s fifth president since independence from Britain in 1963 and take the reins of a country struggling with inflation, high unemployment and a crippling drought.
