Prime
On Kenya’s presidential election petition
Author: Mr Karoli Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate.
What you need to know:
Kenyatta and his handlers are saying the worse thing to happen in Kenya is to become a satellite state of Uganda...
For the first time since the August 9, historic presidential election, phone calls are being returned from the region’s biggest capital Nairobi. Mombasa Port the gateway to the vast East African hinterland of Uganda, Rwanda, Eastern DRC, Burundi, South Sudan and northern Tanzania is open. Ships are unloading cargo. Business appears to be back to normal.
The entire world is painlessly waiting for Martha Koome, the third Chief Justice, to preside over a presidential election petition, to gavel her court to order. This is a bitter sweet moment for Kenya. In 2013, 2017 and 2022, Raila Odinga has surpassed Kizza Besigye’s systematic challenges to the presidential election. On another count he has the additional feather in his cap of successfully having a presidential election annulled, which happened in 2017.
In 2022, Raila Odinga is prosecuting the petition with the assistance of the state. The Attorney General is on his side and 4 out of the 7 IEBC commissioners have sworn affidavits disowning the decision by their chair to declare final results before all results were verified. On the record the final tally excluded verified final results from 25 constituencies. In the mini-general election a few days ago, in constituencies where the IEBC had the wrong ballot papers, ODM appears to have bested Kenya Kwanzaa. ODM will have the most members in the National Assembly. A number of independents have drifted to Kenya Kwanzaa, but some funny noises from the Mt Kenya region are saying the reverse could be true.
The petition does not have the grounds we would have in Uganda but have never seen the light of day, disenfranchisement due to violence, excessive militarisation or even “open voting” the practice where persons in-charge of the polling station open access to all and sundry including those who show up without a voters’ card.
At the Supreme Court four members of court are veterans of the 2017 election petition. Philomena Mwilu, the corporate lawyer and spouse of former Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako is the Deputy Chief Justice. Mwilu, Mohammed Ibrahim, Dr Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Susannah Ndungu and Isaac Lenaola sat in the prior petition. There are other spotlights in the petition, the affidavit of John Githongo, anti-corruption czar under the Mwai Kibaki regime.
The Law Society of Kenya and International Commission of Jurists have all been admitted as amicus curiae. One of the challenges, the Ugandan civic space faces now is being fully co-opted by the administrative regulatory regime into the fabric of the state.
Most of the elements of civil society that existed in 2016 at the time of the presidential election have been disbanded and scattered and the rest have had to toe the line. There is a telling remark in the Uganda Law Society in the throes of a heated election that the society has become more associated with car washes and other charity causes.
President-elect William S. Ruto has held his cards close to his chest. He is part of the outgoing administration and heads the incoming administration. The law clothes him in officialdom but he does not control the levers of power until swearing in day.
Uhuru Kenyatta officially moved his belonging out of State House to his home next door but is even yet to offer his successor a congratulatory phone call. Republican constitutions are not designed for a photo finish.
To put his stamp of authority in event he prevails in court he may have to face the same decision Kenyatta faced, run into the Odinga’s hands for another handshake, that will disrupt the careful and effective coalition that surprised Kenya and the world on Election Day.
In our local politics, the opposition formation was behind Raila Odinga; the candidate of the deep state or establishment. But this may not be a random circumstance, the establishment here was for William Ruto. It did not matter that in earlier elections, Odinga had thrown his weight behind President Museveni.
Kenyatta and his handlers are saying the worse thing to happen in Kenya is to become a satellite state of Uganda, loathed and despised in equal measure.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
