IEBC to File its Responses to Raila’s Petition Challenging President-Elect Ruto’s Win

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) today is expected to file its responses to Azimio La Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s petition which is seeking to overturn President Elect William Ruto’s win.

The commission’s chairperson Wafula Chebukati who was listed as the 2nd respondent is also expected to file his responses.

Odinga’s petition placed Chebukati at the centre of the dispute accusing him of conspiring with Ruto’s team to bungle the election in his favour.

Other commissioners were listed as interested parties and they will be making their way to the Supreme Court registry to file their responses too.

Saturday marks the deadline for all the respondents to file their submissions.

On Friday, President elect Ruto filed a 256-page response to Odinga’s petition, asking the Supreme Court to dismiss his petition because he is a perennial loser seeking a handshake to share government.

Ruto dismissed Odinga’s claim, saying he is known to dispute all presidential election outcomes so as to force a handshake that results in a coalition government, citing a 2012 pact with the later Mwai Kibaki and 2017 when he shook hands with outgoing President who supported him in August polls.

“The first common feature that underlies Odinga’s thirty-year pattern of strikingly similar acts after every presidential election is disingenuous disputation of presidential election results as a means of forcing the winner to share power through unconventional and extra-constitutional government arrangements popularly known as handshake,” Ruto said in an affidavit filed by his lawyers on Friday.

It is reported that Ruto has retained 54 lawyers to defend his victory in nine petitions filed in the Supreme Court.

In his petition, Odinga describes Ruto’s win as a travesty, insisting that he is the one who won.

He now wants the seven-judge bench to nullify Ruto’s win and declare him president-elect or order for a rerun even though he has vowed not to take part unless the IEBC  is reconstituted, accusing its Chairman Wafula Chebukati of colluding with Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to deny him victory.

Odinga, 77 lost his fifth bid for the presidency by a narrow margin of around 230,000 votes less than two percentage points.