NAIROBI – On August 9, 2022, Kenyans exercised their constitutional right to choose their fifth president in which on Monday 15, 2022, Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission – IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati declared William Ruto as the winner.
Accordingly, Ruto beat his rival Raila Odinga by 50.49% to 48.85 percent.
However, four of the seven members of IEBC refused to endorse the results, saying they were “opaque”.
In a detailed statement issued on Tuesday, the four members including; Juliana Cherera – Vice Chair and three other commissioners; Francis Wanderi, Justus Abonyo and Irene Masit said that they took an oath of office to defend the constitution and the law in discharge of their duties independently and therefore cannot endorse “rigged” election.
According to results announced by Mr. Chebukati, Raila Odinga scored 48.85%, William Ruto won with 50.49%, Waihiga Mwaure got 0.23% whereas Wajakoya George got 0.44% totalling 100.01%.
The protesting commissioners say that this aggregation of the percentages of the results scored by the four presidential candidates “presented to us a mathematical absurdity that defies logic.”
“0.1% translates to approximately 142,000 votes, which would make a significant difference in the final result,” they say.
“We, therefore, declined to take ownership of the said results because the aggregation resulted in a total exceeding 100 percentage which cast doubt on the accuracy of the source of the figures tallied, and when we demanded that we verify our record, Mr. Chebukati declined, overruled us and insisted on declaring and announcing the said figures.”
They also claim that contrary to the Constitution and legislation, the results declared and announced DID NOT indicate the total number of registered voters, the total number of votes cast or the number of rejected votes, if any.
“In this regard, the results announced by Mr. Chebukati lack a critical ingredient namely the total number of valid votes cast to support the percentages scored by the four candidates. Unless demonstrated otherwise, we all know that a percentage is essentially a fraction of a whole number.” “Hence, if, for example, the 7.176 million valid votes cast in favour of the winning candidate as declared and announced by Chebukati translate to 50.49%, then it was 50.49% of what? Further, TAKE NOTICE that Mr. Chebukati claimed that Raila Odinga attained 25% of votes in 34 counties while William Ruto attained 25% in 39 counties—the question is; which figures in the 34 and 39 counties respectively constituted the independent variables to warrant Mr. Chebukati’s conclusion of 25% in 34 counties and 25% in 39 counties for Raila and Ruto respectively? In the absence of a credible and verifiable explanation, we concluded that the process that went into the generation of FORM 34C which Chebukati used to declare results of the presidential election was opaque and incapable of earning our ownership and confidence.”
They noted that guided by the authority of the Maina Kiai case (Petition No.106 of 2016 as upheld by the Court of Appeal in Civil Appeal No.105 of 2017 and affirmed by the Supreme Court of Kenya), “we state categorically that the results of the presidential election held on August 9, 2022 declared and announced by Mr Wafula Chebukati on August 15, 2022 belong to Mr Chebukati himself and do not represent a declaration and announcement by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission. The Commission has to process the results before they are declared and announced by the chairperson.”
The four Commissioners say that chairperson conducted the election as though he is the National Returning Officer, a non-existent role, and his role in declaring results that were not approved at plenary by all 7 commissioners renders the results unconstitutional to the extent that these “are Chebukati’s results as opposed to those of the IEBC.”
Mr. Odinga also rejected the results and promised to mount a legal challenge.
“Without reservation, I reject the election results announced August 15 as Kenya’s electoral body proclaimed William Ruto as president-elect.”
“What we saw yesterday was a travesty and a blatant disregard of the constitution of Kenya by Mr Chebukati,” Raila told a press conference at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi on Tuesday.
