Raila’s lawyers say votes were tampered with to favour Ruto

Lawyers representing Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga in the Supreme Court presidential petition, have argued that the August 9, 2022 presidential election was a result of craftiness by the country’s electoral commission and President-elect William Ruto.

On Wednesday, James Orengo and Julie Soweto, who were the first to make their submissions at the apex court, said a vote manipulation scheme was hatched by the two respondents to ensure Ruto won the polls.
Citing affidavits by two people, Mr. Raila’s lawyers said there was evidence indicating that Odinga’s votes were reduced and added to Ruto’s in some polling stations. A scheme they say was commonplace in the perceived strongholds of Ruto.

According to Mr. Orengo, “there was a systematic deduction of votes from Raila Odinga and the same number of votes that were deducted, were added to William Ruto. However, the unique things about this scheme was that the total number of votes cast remained the same.”
The lawyer said the pattern was replicated in other areas, and has the potential of changing the election outcome if fully scrutinised.

The lawyer also questioned why in several polling stations, especially those in Central Kenya and Rift Valley, more voters cast their ballots for the president than other elective seat candidates.
The IEBC had, in their replying affidavit, said stray votes, violence and postponed elections in eight areas resulted in higher votes cast for president than some other seats.

Away from the alleged discrepancies in the electoral forms, and the highlighted stray ballot papers’ irregularities, Orengo and Soweto called for the nullification of the presidential results, saying the IEBC’s divisions were testament of a commission in turmoil, hence not able to preside over transparent elections.
Arguing that, IEBC’s results transmission system was breached in favour of William Ruto.