We have evidence of rigging in presidential poll, says Raila

By Geoffrey Mosoku

Nairobi, Kenya: Prime Minister Raila Odinga has expressed confidence the challenge to the election of Uhuru Kenyatta, as president will succeed at the Supreme Court.

Raila claimed his Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) team has evidence proving that last week’s elections were bungled to hand Uhuru, the Jubilee Alliance candidate, victory.

CORD is, however, yet to formally lodge the petition at the Supreme Court, but has until Monday, according to the law.

On Tuesday, CORD, through Eliud Owalo, head of the Raila For President Campaign Secretariat, sought the High Court’s intervention to have Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) compelled to release March 4 election data to help CORD prepare its petition to the Supreme Court.  CORD appears likely to seek a full manual audit of the votes cast in the March 4 General Election.

IEBC declared Uhuru the president-elect with 50.07 per cent of the presidential vote.

On Tuesday, Raila, whom IEBC declared won 43.3 per cent of the vote, claimed he had been robbed of victory and exuded confidence that the Supreme Court will rule fairly.

The PM said he believed in God saying: “We have faith in God and we know He will always stand on the side of the truth and He will give us justice.”

Raila last evening returned to his former constituency of Langata, where he urged supporters to be calm and wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court.

He sought to assure his supporters that the CORD leaders were still united to forge forward with their case.

“CORD is firm and will not be shaken, the leaders are united and we are committed to reclaim our victory,” he told supporters at Kibera DO’s office.

Raila said majority of Kenyans were in mourning following the announcement of election results, but reaffirmed his belief that they would not be denied victory.

“I know you are mourning, but just be patient and wait for the court to determine this matter. In the long run victory will be on our side. Citizens are mourning following last week’s announcement, but Kenyans will be firm and we will emerge victorious,” he added.

The CORD leader said the coalition is planning countrywide rallies to thank the people who voted for him saying today’s meeting at KICC will discuss the programme.

Stolen victory

“We are meeting tomorrow at KICC with all leaders who were elected and from then we will be moving across the country to thank our supporters,” the PM said, amid cheers from the crowd.

He warned that his rival should not celebrate a stolen victory and turned to analogies to express his disappointment with the IEBC.

The PM said what had happened would be unearthed by the courts, while likening the events of last week to a night-runner who had gone out at night naked and slept only to be awakened by the morning sun.

He was accompanied by Budalangi MP-elect Ababu Namwamba, and Senators-elect Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu) and Johnstone Muthama (Machakos).

Namwamba warned foreign envoys against rushing to pay homage to Uhuru and Ruto, saying it was a breach of protocol to recognise a president-elect whose win is being challenged in a court of law.

In its application to the High Court, CORD sought access to swathes of documents generated by the voting system and gave indication as to how its legal team intends to construct its challenge to Uhuru’s election at the Supreme Court.

Their strategy is to obtain evidence to carry out a full audit of the presidential elections, tracing the entire process from the registration of voters, the actual numbers of those who voted, and how the results were handled from one point to another before being released to the public.

The CORD team wants IEBCcompelled to provide them with key documents and electronic evidence from all the polling stations.