Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY JILLO KADIDA AND SAM KIPLAGAT
VOTES
from Jubilee strongholds were manipulated to exaggerate Uhuru
Kenyatta’s win, according to Kethi Kilonzo, the lawyer for the Africa
Centre for Governance, in the Supreme Court yesterday.
She provided documents and video recordings apparently showing votes being deducted from other presidential candidates and added to Uhuru's votes.
For example, in Nyeri county, the results announced at the polling centre were different from those announced at the tallying centre in Bomas.
Kethi said the final results indicated that Uhuru received 318,880 votes which was higher than the original figure by 1000 votes.
It also showed that Cord presidential candidate Raila Odinga's votes in Nyeri county were reduced by 500. The results announced at Bomas indicated that he got 5,638 yet the results at the polling station showed that he had 6,075 votes.
“Form 36 of IEBC is vitiated by fraud of every Kenyan voter who voted for their favorite candidate. It’s daylight theft. I dare say the only logical thing for the court to do is to vitiate the results of Nyeri County,” said Kethi. (To vitiate means to destroy the legal validity).
She cited Bomet, Machakos town constituency, Makueni and Kieni and other counties where the votes were manipulated during tallying.
In Machakos town, the difference between the principal register and Form 36 was 3,182 voters. She said the results for the constituency did not meet the minimum standards set in the constitution and were at variance with the law given that the glaring discrepancies.
In Makueni, the IEBC results indicated that 64,708 people were registered to vote while Form 36 ( that contains the votes cast in the election) indicated that there were 64,525 voters. The records indicate that 64,976 people voted.
Kethi wondered why there were five different figures in one constituency alone.
"The law talks of one register which is the principal register and does not mention registers. I challenge the IEBC and the court to look at the Election Act and find me 'a green book' which the IEBC was using for tallying. Kriegler recommended that the black book be destroyed but alas, we are not out of dark days,” said Kethi.
She said there were there was a difference of over a million between the total number of registered voters and the number of registered voters as indicated on Form 36.
“If one person outside the voters register which recorded a total of 14,352,533 was allowed to vote, the only logical conclusion is to invalidate that election. The 3,000 difference in Machakos town constituency alone, which the IEBC accepted, is enough to impair the election,” she said.
Kethi said the results in 100 constituencies have irregularities and the IEBC's declaration of Uhuru as the victor did not meet the threshold of verifiability.
"The only logical finding the court can reach is to invalidate the elections. If we do not have a credible manual register how can we then have a credible election?” she said.
“The end cannot justify the means and I pray that you will uphold that stand as these are the standards that people voted for when they passed the new constitution. The standards are that elections must be free, fair, secure and accurate," she argued.
She said the just ended elections did not meet these standards, especially when at one point rejected votes were being multiplied by eight and the results of the tallying obviously manipulated.
She said that the malpractices meant that the election was conducted in violation of the constitution and, unless rectified, would result in the installation of an illegal government, she said.
She said the IEBC had "failed miserably" in the conduct of a credible election and let down millions of Kenyans who queued patiently to vote.
“IEBC promised that they will announce the results in 48 hours. They did so knowing they will transmit results electronically. They have admitted that it failed in 55.1 per cent of polling stations which is a substantial failure,” she said.
She also challenged the decision by IEBC to resort to the manual register after the electronic voter identification system failed.
“IEBC says the process is manual. This is not according to the standards set in the constitution.These standards are not for their benefit but for the benefit of Kenyans,” she added.
She said if the IEBC had stuck to the use of electronic system, the results would have been relayed instantly and the massive alteration of election results would not have happened.
In his submission, Raila's lawyer George Oraro said the BVR kits used in the voter registration and the electronic voter identification equipment were bound to fail and were a ploy to manipulate the voters' register.
Oraro said the IEBC ignored the first warning it was given that the technology would not work.
“Like many other projects, the project was beset with corruption, impunity, and opaqueness,” Oraro said.
He said that once the IEBC closed the voters' register on February 18, 2013, it was not open to additions or subtractions. After inspection, the register stood at 14,337,339 but the final figure of registered voters was 14,352,545.
She provided documents and video recordings apparently showing votes being deducted from other presidential candidates and added to Uhuru's votes.
For example, in Nyeri county, the results announced at the polling centre were different from those announced at the tallying centre in Bomas.
Kethi said the final results indicated that Uhuru received 318,880 votes which was higher than the original figure by 1000 votes.
It also showed that Cord presidential candidate Raila Odinga's votes in Nyeri county were reduced by 500. The results announced at Bomas indicated that he got 5,638 yet the results at the polling station showed that he had 6,075 votes.
“Form 36 of IEBC is vitiated by fraud of every Kenyan voter who voted for their favorite candidate. It’s daylight theft. I dare say the only logical thing for the court to do is to vitiate the results of Nyeri County,” said Kethi. (To vitiate means to destroy the legal validity).
She cited Bomet, Machakos town constituency, Makueni and Kieni and other counties where the votes were manipulated during tallying.
In Machakos town, the difference between the principal register and Form 36 was 3,182 voters. She said the results for the constituency did not meet the minimum standards set in the constitution and were at variance with the law given that the glaring discrepancies.
In Makueni, the IEBC results indicated that 64,708 people were registered to vote while Form 36 ( that contains the votes cast in the election) indicated that there were 64,525 voters. The records indicate that 64,976 people voted.
Kethi wondered why there were five different figures in one constituency alone.
"The law talks of one register which is the principal register and does not mention registers. I challenge the IEBC and the court to look at the Election Act and find me 'a green book' which the IEBC was using for tallying. Kriegler recommended that the black book be destroyed but alas, we are not out of dark days,” said Kethi.
She said there were there was a difference of over a million between the total number of registered voters and the number of registered voters as indicated on Form 36.
“If one person outside the voters register which recorded a total of 14,352,533 was allowed to vote, the only logical conclusion is to invalidate that election. The 3,000 difference in Machakos town constituency alone, which the IEBC accepted, is enough to impair the election,” she said.
Kethi said the results in 100 constituencies have irregularities and the IEBC's declaration of Uhuru as the victor did not meet the threshold of verifiability.
"The only logical finding the court can reach is to invalidate the elections. If we do not have a credible manual register how can we then have a credible election?” she said.
“The end cannot justify the means and I pray that you will uphold that stand as these are the standards that people voted for when they passed the new constitution. The standards are that elections must be free, fair, secure and accurate," she argued.
She said the just ended elections did not meet these standards, especially when at one point rejected votes were being multiplied by eight and the results of the tallying obviously manipulated.
She said that the malpractices meant that the election was conducted in violation of the constitution and, unless rectified, would result in the installation of an illegal government, she said.
She said the IEBC had "failed miserably" in the conduct of a credible election and let down millions of Kenyans who queued patiently to vote.
“IEBC promised that they will announce the results in 48 hours. They did so knowing they will transmit results electronically. They have admitted that it failed in 55.1 per cent of polling stations which is a substantial failure,” she said.
She also challenged the decision by IEBC to resort to the manual register after the electronic voter identification system failed.
“IEBC says the process is manual. This is not according to the standards set in the constitution.These standards are not for their benefit but for the benefit of Kenyans,” she added.
She said if the IEBC had stuck to the use of electronic system, the results would have been relayed instantly and the massive alteration of election results would not have happened.
In his submission, Raila's lawyer George Oraro said the BVR kits used in the voter registration and the electronic voter identification equipment were bound to fail and were a ploy to manipulate the voters' register.
Oraro said the IEBC ignored the first warning it was given that the technology would not work.
“Like many other projects, the project was beset with corruption, impunity, and opaqueness,” Oraro said.
He said that once the IEBC closed the voters' register on February 18, 2013, it was not open to additions or subtractions. After inspection, the register stood at 14,337,339 but the final figure of registered voters was 14,352,545.
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