Kenya dispatch: high court dismisses challenge to presidential election results, upholds Ruto victory Dispatches
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Kenya dispatch: high court dismisses challenge to presidential election results, upholds Ruto victory

The Supreme Court of Kenya Monday dismissed a challenge to the victory of Kenya’s president-elect William Ruto. The ruling puts an end to a tough electioneering period and paves the way for the president-elect’s swearing-in next week. Following the declaration of the presidential results by the electoral commission on August 15, the court received a total of nine petitions challenging the election.

Subsequently, two of the nine petitions were thrown out due to various procedural issues. The remaining petitions were consolidated, and the court distilled nine cross-cutting issues for determination. These issues ranged from whether the technology deployed by the electoral commission fell below the constitutional standards to whether the president-elect attained the constitutional threshold of the majority of valid votes. Another outstanding issue for determination was the role of the chairman in the tallying and verification of the results vis-a-vis the other commissioners.

The hearing of the petitions, which took place from August 31 to September 2, was characterized by intense and weighty submissions from both sides. The court unanimously dismissed all nine grounds of the petition. It found that the technology deployed by the electoral commission met the requisite constitutional standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency. The court also ruled that there was no interference with the uploading and transmission of results from polling stations to the national tallying center.

On the issue of the role of the electoral commission chairman, the court partially agreed with petitioners that the role of verifying and tallying the final results rests on the commission as a whole and not on the chairperson. The court concluded that there were indeed some illegalities and irregularities in the electoral process, but they were not of such magnitude to nullify the election. Thus, the court upheld Ruto’s victory.

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