Lawyers representing petitioners in the ongoing presidential election petition at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, August 31 had a difficult time after they were bombarded with several questions by the judges.
The judges pointed out several gaps in the lawyers' submissions and asked them to clarify the questions raised on the morning of Thursday, September 1.
Justice William Ouko asked Raila Odinga's lead lawyer James Orengo to explain the relevance of rejected votes in the tallying of final presidential results.
The judge also asked the lawyer how postponement of governor seat elections in Mombasa and Kakamega counties affected the presidential election.
"You say that the postponement of elections resulted in voter suppression, that people wake up one morning to go and vote for particular candidates.
"Do we have any scientific nexus on this or is it just an assumption that this happens?" He posed.
On her part, Justice Njoki Ndung'u could not understand how Forms 34A could be changed when the contents in them were handwritten.
"What I want to understand is how forms written in handwriting can be changed. How does that happen?" Justice Ndung'u asked.
Other Supreme Court judges' questions
Justice Isaac Lenaola on his part wanted to know when the commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) disagreed on the election process especially the tallying of the presidential election results.
"We saw your clients reading out results...what evidence do we have that this was not an afterthought? Why don't we have anything that for the last two to three months which shows that they documented these things?
"My own sense of things is that when you come only at the point of the final declaration, how then do we trust that in fact there were issues before?" He asked lawyer Jotham Arwa who appeared for commissioner Justus Nyang’aya.
Justice Mohamed Ibrahim sought to understand how possible for IEBC to conduct a new election if the petitioners are proposing the removal of its Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
"Feasibility of the reliefs sought, if the election is annulled, due to Chebukati’s malfeasance, what is probably the way to guard on the possible lacuna in the event Chebukati is impeached?" He posed.
Chief Justice Martha Koome posed: "You have asked us to find the IEBC chairman (Wafula Chebukati) culpable for various election breaches. This is a constitutional office order and Article 251 (2)A says there is a constitutional process of removing him from office.
"How do we go about that? Would we be making an order that is contrary to the constitution?"
