Lawyers representing President-elect William Ruto and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in the ongoing presidential petition at the Supreme Court were put to task to answer and provide clarifications on several issues raised by the apex court's seven judges.
Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu asked the IEBC lawyers to provide clarification on the function of the commission in ensuring free, fair, and credible elections.
Mwilu put IEBC lawyer Mahat Somane to task after he claimed all candidates in the August 9 general election were given a chance to pick their own agents to safeguard their votes.
"What if there were no agents? Article 81E places the burden of ensuring that we have a fair, free, transparent, and accountable election on the IEBC. Where there are no agents, is it not the role of the IEBC in Article 81E to ensure that election is credible?" She posed.
Mwilu also asked IEBC lead lawyer Githu Muigai to explain the role of the commissioners and juxtapose it with that of the electoral body's secretariat staff.
"We seem to be having an all-powerful CEO of IEBC," she stated.
IEBC Chairman put to task
At the same time, Justice Isaac Lenaola questioned the manner in which the presidential results were announced by the IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
"Why was Chebukati in a hurry to announce the results and yet he still had a day to announce them? Why did he not take time to bring all the commissioners together?" He asked.
The judge also wanted to know at what point the scanned copy of Form 34A changed to PDF.
Justice Smokin Wanjala sought clarification on the role of a Venezuelan citizen who had access to the IEBC servers.
"In your admission Mr. Mahat, you said that a Venezuelan national had access to the IEBC server until the eve of the election day when he was logged out, what was he doing there?" He asked.
Chief Justice Martha Koome and Justice William Ouko on their part asked the lawyers to explain why the commission stopped live streaming of the presidential results at the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya.
Justice Njoki Ndungu questioned the powers the IEBC chairman was "wielding".
"Prof. Githu Muigai, from the narrative in the court, there appears to be an all-powerful chair. What is the check for this all-powerful chair if the commissioners have nothing to do with the role?"
"What would happen if the chair was to announce the wrong result? If he was mentally incapacitated, sick or worst case scenario, dead, who would announce the result?"
