Uhurus October 26 victory likely to be challenged today

The deadline for filing petitions against President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory in the October 26 repeat presidential election is due by close of business today (Monday, November 6), and all eyes will be on the Supreme Court registry to see if indeed any petition will be filed.

By end of Friday (November 3), not a single presidential petition had been filed in the Supreme Court registry with Judiciary Registrar Anne Amadi telling Citizen TV that the registry had remained closed through the weekend.

The National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition is not expected to directly file a petition at the apex court, with its Presidential candidate Raila Odinga having boycotted the polls which he said,” was a pre-rigged electoral process.”

However, a consortium of civil society organizations is said to be working on a petition which they intend to file on Monday, raising questions on the electoral process and citing multiple anomalies in the fresh poll.

Sources close to the Citizen Digital reveal that Yash Pal Ghai’s Katiba Institute, John Githongo’s Inuka Trust and Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) headed by Khelef Khalifa are part of the consortium that is likely to file petition today.

Some of the issues they are said to be banking on include but not limited to the notion that when the opposition supremo withdrew from the race, the October 26 poll ought to have been cancelled and fresh nominations conducted, and that according to Article 138(2) of the Constitution the repeat election was not conducted in all the 290 constituencies.

But in a move suspected to be the government’s bid to frustrate the organizations from filing the petition, the NGO’s Co-ordination Board has already summoned officials of the bodies over audit queries, falsifying financial records and hiring foreigners without Kenyan work permits.

Should no petition be filed by 11:59 pm today, the Assumption of Office Committee will swing into action to prepare for President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta’s swearing in ceremony on Tuesday the 14^th of November at the Kasarani stadium.