The Supreme Court has this afternoon delivered a landmark judgement, upholding the victory of Deputy President William Ruto, confirming him as the 5th president of the Republic of Kenya.
The justices arrived in the chamber a few minutes past noon, and went straight ahead to reading the verdict.
Before the hearings had started, the court identified 9 issues that they would be resolving. This was after consolidating all petitions into one.
Among the issues were whether IEBC deployed verifiable, and transparent technology; whether there was interference with the portal, whther there were differences between Form 34As on the portal and those at Bomas; whether there were discrepancies between votes cast in different positions; whether Ruto attained 50%+1 and also whether there were irregularities and illegalities of such magnitude to affect the outcome.
Chief Justice Martha Koome tackled each of these issues at length, reading out what was alleged in the petitions, what the petitioners wanted as relief and the responses issued by IEBC. In each of those issues, the court found no evidence of wrong doing.
One by one, they were all dismissed, and Ruto was declared validly elected.
The verdict brings to an end one of Kenya’s longest campaign and election seasons. It also perhaps deals a fatal blow to Raila’s desire to be president of this country. As it turned out, it was not to be 5th time lucky for the former Prime Minister.
At 77 years old, Raila will simply be too old to vie in 2027. Even if he did, it is almost practically impossible to dethrone a sitting president in Kenya.
Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua will be sworn into office next week.
