The Supreme Court has framed 9 issues for its determination of Presidential Election petition

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 30 – The pre-trial conference on the Presidential petitions challenging President-Elect William Ruto’s win has began on Tuesday, 11.00am.

The Supreme Court of Kenya led by CJ Martha Koome on its pretrial sitting has framed DRAFT ISSUES FOR DETERMINATION

UPON perusing the pleadings, the Court has identified the following issues for determination, to be considered by the parties at the Pre – trial conference.

1. Whether the technology deployed by the IEBC for the conduct of the 2022 general elections met the standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results.
2. Whether there was interference with the uploading and transmission of Forms 34A from the polling stations to the IEBC Publie Portal.
3. Whether there was a difference between Forms 34A uploaded on the IEBC Public Portal and the Forms 34A received at the National Tallying Centre, and Forms 34A issued to the Agents at the Polling Stations.
4. Whether the postponement of Gubernatorial Elections in Kakamega and Mombasa Counties, Parliamentary elections in Kitui Rural, Kacheliba Rongai and Pokot South Constituencies and electoral wards in Nyaki West in North Imenti Constituency and Kwa jenga in Embakasi South Constituency resulted in voter suppression to the detriment of the Petitioners in Petition No. Eo05 of 2022.
5. Whether there were unexplainable discrepancies between the votes east for presidential candidates and other elective positions.
6. Whether the IEBC carried out the verification, tallying, and declaration of results in accordance with Article 138 (3) (c) and 138 (10) of the Constitution.
7. Whether the declared President-elect attained 50%+1 vote of all the votescast in accordance with Article 138 (4) of the Constitution.
8. Whether there were irregularities and illegalities of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the Presidential Election.
9. What reliefs and orders can the Court grant/issue?

Nine presidential petitions were lodged at the Supreme Court on Monday with eight of them seeking to overturn President-Elect William Ruto’s victory.

Ruto was declared the winner of the August 9 general election after sailing past the ‘50 per cent plus one’ constitutional threshold that requires a winner in a presidential election to garner 50 per cent of votes cast and an additional vote to avoid a runoff.

The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate garnered 7,176,141 (50.49 per cent) votes beating his closest challenger, Azimio’s Raila Odinga, who managed 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent).

Ruto’s victory has however, been challenged at the Apex Court by Odinga and eight other petitioners who want the election nullified and a fresh election conducted in accordance with the law and Electoral Act.