NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 16 – Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Leader Raila Odinga has yet again tore in the unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court that upheld the victory of President William Ruto in the August 9 polls.
Odinga termed the ruling as one inspired by the devil and was nothing short of “judicial thuggery” portrayed in broad day light that thwarted the consolidated petition that sought to nullify the election.
“Supreme Court is now in politics and they say that the ruling was inspired by God. I believe the ruling was inspired by the devil,” he said while chairing the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya parliamentary group meeting in Machakos.
“The actions by the Chief Justice are clearly sycophantic and demean the diginity of the office of the Chief Justice,” he added.
The ODM Leader faulted the move by the Supreme Court to unanimously dismiss portal infiltration claims in his petition terming the evidence ‘hot air’ having fallen acutely short of the evidentiary threshold.
The court singled out submissions by lawyer Julie Soweto in which Odinga’s legal team claimed a Venezuelan National named Jose Camargo interfered with the public portal during the August 9 polls.
“The words that the Chief Justice used against us have never been used in our court even in the days of single party rule and state capture of the Judiciary,” he said.
Odinga lamented that the 7-judge bench has resorted to intimidation of a section of leaders and Kenyans when they moved to disagree with the ruling made.
He castigated the move by Justice Isaac Lenaola where he allegedly threatened Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah who was one of the petitioners in the case.
“The court registrar has already issued threats to those who have criticized the despicable judgment of the court. Lenaola is publicly accused of threatening Senator Omtatah with humiliation over his stand,” Odinga noted.
In a unanimous decision delivered by Chief Justice Martha Koome on Monday, the seven-judge bench said that the scrutiny orders by the court showed that there were not any security breaches in the IEBC system.
“We turn to form 34 A for Gacharaigu Primary School which was sensationally presented by Madam Julie Soweto to show that one Jose Camargo accessed the RTS and interfered with the results contained therein, this also turned out to be no more than hot air and we were taken on a wild goose chase that yielded nothing of value,” Koome said.
The Chief Justice said went forward to note that there was no credible proof that unauthorized persons accessed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) servers before and after the August 9 polls.
The court also found no credible evidence that Forms 34A were being downloaded and reuploaded after manipulation as was adduced by the petitioners.
The court also dismissed the affidavit sworn by John Githongo which the bench noted contained forgeries observing that it contained “no more than incredible hearsay evidence.”
“No credible evidence was presented to prove the allegations that forms 34A were frequently altered by a group situated in Karen under the direction of a person named in the affidavit,” the Chief Justice said.
Koome warned lawyers against presenting false evidence in court saying it amounts to an offense.
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