Supreme Court Judges on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, listed several tough questions that Azimio lawyers will be required to answer as the court resumes hearing for the presidential results petition on Thursday morning.
The judges asked the questions towards the end of the first day of the hearing of the case in which Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga, his running mate Martha Karua and other petitioners are seeking nullification of the results.
Among the questions the Azimio lawyers led by Senior Counsel James Orengo will be required to answer is whether individuals that they allege to have hacked the IEBC system to change results on form 34A also changed the physical forms that were delivered at the Bomas of Kenya.
“What I want to understand is how forms written in handwriting can be changed. How does that happen?” Justice Njoki Ndung’u asked.
“Can the hackers change the physical Forms 34A being delivered by road to Bomas?” added Justice Smokin Wanjala.
Another tough question the lawyers representing the petitioners will be expected to answer is why the court should believe the four IEBC commissioners who have distanced themselves from results announced by chairperson Wafula Chebukati.
Justice Isaac Lenaola while asking the question noted that at some point, each of the four commissioners was captured reading the results at the Bomas of Kenya.
“We saw your clients reading out results…what evidence do we have that this was not an afterthought?..why don’t we have anything that for the last two three months which show that they documented about this things?” Justice Lenaola asked.
Rejected voters
Further, the Supreme Court Judges also want to know the role of rejected voters in the final tally of the presidential results.
There has been an argument that the rejected voters should be included when concluding whether a candidate attained the 50 per cent plus one vote of the votes to be declared President-elect.
“What is the relevance of rejected votes when computing the outcome of presidential votes?” Justice William Ouko asked.
The hearing continues Thursday, September 1, 202, with the lawyers representing IEBC, President-elect William Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua expected to respond to claims made by the petitioners.
