Supreme Court receives 8 petitions challenging Ruto's election

A total of eight petitions have been lodged at the Supreme Court challenging the election of William Ruto as the President-elect.

Earlier on Monday,  scramble that nearly turned chaotic was witnessed at the Supreme Court registry in Forodha House, Nairobi as several parties rushed to beat the deadline in filing their petition.

Azimio Presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his deputy Martha Karua filed was among the parties that filed a petition at the apex court, challenging the declaration of President-elect William Ruto as the winner in the August 9 polls. 

Raila and Karua, in a case against IEBC, its chairperson Wafula Chebukati, commissioners and William Ruto have asked the court to declare the Presidential Election results announced on August 15 null and void.

In a separate petition, Busia Senator-elect Okiya Omtatah also challenged the results of the Presidential election announced by IEBC, stating that no candidate achieved the 50% plus one threshold stipulated in the constitution.

Omtatah said that the math does not add up and that the final results were not based on the absolute total number of votes cast and did not factor in some 140, 028 votes which he says would alter the outcome of the final results and particularly the constitutional 50%+1 threshold.

The Busia Senator’s math in the petition placed all candidates below the 50 percent mark with William Ruto getting 49.9 percent and Raila Odinga 48.3 percent.

The Supreme Court also received a petition from renowned public interest litigant Khelef Khalifa, seeking the nullification of the presidential election results.

 In his petition , Khalifa a prominent litigant in the 2017 election petition that saw the Supreme Court nullify the presidential election results wants the Court to nullify Ruto's win claiming this year's polls was marred by massive irregularities.

 Khalifa also wants the court to order an audit of all the electoral systems deployed in the august election and for all petitioners to be granted access to the KIEMS kits claiming infiltration which affected the credibility and finality of the election.

After failing to be cleared to run for president despite an High Court ruling that was later challenged by the electoral body and eventually overturned at the Court of Appeal, gospel artist Reuben Kigame has also filed a petition asking the supreme court to declare the nomination and clearance of the four presidential candidates as null and void.

In another petition, John Njoroge Kamau, a voter sought the courts clarification on whether the IEBC chairman erred in excluding a majority of the commissioners in the final tallying.

He also wanted the seven-judge bench to declare that the IEBC chair had committed election related irregularities and bar him from overseeing another election as national returning officer. 

Also presenting their petition at the registry was a lobby group dubbed Youth Advocacy Africa who also called for the nullification of the presidential election saying they had evidence that there was manipulation of the poll outcome to ensure a candidate achieved the 50%+1 threshold. 

Other petitions filed at the apex comprised of anti-graft crusader John Githongo, popular preacher David Kariuki Ngari,  Juliah Nyokabi Chege, Joseph Mutua Ndonga and Simon Mwaura Njenga