Tuesday 5 September 2017

Yesterday, IEBC announced that a fresh election will be held on October 17. This was perhaps guided by worries expressed by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, that national exams and the school timetable would be affected greatly if the elections were held past that date.

In a press statement signed by chairman Wafula Chebukati, IEBC also announced that the fresh election will only have Uhuru and Raila plus their running mates on the ballot. This means all other candidate that had competed in the first round, namely: Ekuru Akuot, Abduba Dida, Joseph Nyaga, Japheth Kavinga, Shakhalaga Jirongo and Michael Wainaina, will not be on the ballot.

This, as expected, did not go down well with many people who understood ‘fresh election’ to mean that everyone who was in the first round can still compete in the second round.

Leading the onslaught against IEBC on Twitter was, unsurprisingly, Thirdway Alliance candidate Ekuru Aukot. He had earlier stated categorically that he would be on the ballot, and the move by IEBC might have come as a surprise to him.

”Decision by @IEBCKenya to lock other presidential candidates out of #FreshElections is INVALID ILLEGAL, NULL & VOID We Are headed to Court,” Ekuru started his tweet/retweet storm.

Also joining in to castigate IEBC was Miguna Miguna.

”ANOTHER FRAUD: A FRESH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TRIGGERS a petition while A RE-RUN set by the @IEBCKenya denies anyone RIGGED OUT that right.” he tweeted.

And they were not the only ones.

But what is the Supreme Court’s position?

Until the comprehensive ruling is provided, Chief Justice Maraga did not give clear directions here. So IEBC relied on the 2013 Supreme Court definition.

The Mutunga led court clearly defined the meaning of ‘fresh election’ in this context.

“If the petitioner was only one of the candidates, and who had taken the second position in vote-tally to the President-elect, then the “fresh election” will, in law, be confined to the petitioner and the President-elect. All the remaining candidates who did not contest the election of the President-elect, will be assumed to have either conceded defeat, or acquiesced in the results as declared by IEBC; and such candidates may not participate in the “fresh election.”

So, either most of these lawyers commenting have not read this ruling, or there is something else coming.

Ⓒ 2014 Nairobi Wire

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