President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday insisted that the Supreme Court subverted will of the people by nullifying a valid election where he was declared winner with a big margin.
Uhuru said that the full judgement delivered by Supreme Court confirmed that voting, counting and tallying was done in accordance with law and the number of votes he obtained was not contested.
However, he said the presidential election was nullified on assumption that there were no irregularities in the election results forms but the courts did not conduct proper scrutiny or verification of the forms.
“Election of August 8 was indeed valid and the will of people of Kenya was subverted by courts. The Supreme Court owes Kenyans an explanation on how such a monstrous injustice could have taken place,” said Uhuru.
He insisted that he will comply with judgement but the constitutional right of Kenyans to elect leaders is undisputed.
The President asked IEBC conduct a fresh presidential election within 60 days as ordered by the Supreme Court and allow Kenyans to have a chance to vote for their preferred candidate.
Uhuru assured Kenyans that the country will remain secure and stable. He urged citizens to go on with the business of building Kenya and that security officers should provide protection to all Kenyans. IEBC on Thursday announced October 26 as the date for fresh presidential poll.
The Cabinet earlier in the day approved Sh10 billion to cover the repeat election. The budget allocation will be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
Source link-standardmedia.co.ke
Who gets the money for polls to be conducted? Appears that whomever is getting paid for putting on the elections will get a healthy sum of Shillings. But money is only one of the issues perhaps; although it is part of the issue since it is forcing the Government to over-shoot the budget. The issue, obvious to many, is whether Kenyans will vote again and be given leave to vote by their employers. This should be interesting if employers block employees from going to their home areas to vote. If they do not give leave to employees to vote, then I believe the courts might be overwhelmed with lawsuits. That and what happened to the reports from the first poll? Were they presented to the Court? If they were and they were not considered, it appears this could present an issue with due process (which is the President’s concern perhaps). This is already a great burden on Wananchi as much if not more than for the efficient and effective working of Government for Wananchi. If the overall vote is less than the first vote, an analysis should be made; even if the tallies are greater or if the vote is different. I can see this going back to the Courts no matter the outcome perhaps. If the new results do go back to the Courts, it might appear that Kenya has become a litiginous State indeed, if not a Constitutional Republic. Someone is pushing the country toward a bridge too far perhaps, which is being built on the hard work of Wananchi and businesses who pay taxes. We need to pray for the welfare of this beautiful and wonderful Constitutional Republic and its Wananchi.