WEDNESDAY MAY 17 2017
By VALENTINE OBARA
Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju addresses journalists at the party’s headquarters in Nairobi on May 16, 2017. He told the Opposition to stop panicking. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
Jubilee has termed the threat by opposition leader Raila Odinga to boycott the election “incitement” that could plunge the country into chaos.
Secretary-General Raphael Tuju said Mr Odinga’s ODM party, which he claimed had a resolve to sabotage the upcoming election, was responsible for the hard-line position taken by the Opposition.
The Opposition has threatened to boycott the election if the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) goes ahead with its appeal against a ruling by the High Court that presidential elections announced at the constituency level are final.
Mr Odinga said the IEBC should obey the High Court ruling and the law. It was wrong, he said, to go to the Court of Appeal to overturn the law.
He was referring to an amendment of the election law last year, requiring that announcement of presidential results be done at constituency level, which was upheld by the court. The IEBC has appealed against this.
ROLE USURPED
The electoral commission chairman is the returning officer in presidential elections and IEBC thinks his constitutional role will be usurped if constituency returning officers’ announcements are final.
It has also been argued that the national office “moderates” results or audits them for irregularities.
The Opposition views this, and other such action, as rigging of elections, adding that the role of determining the integrity of results rests with the courts.
Many in the Opposition believe that results are “cooked” at the national tallying centre.
Announcement at constituency level makes it difficult for political parties — almost all of which have seen widespread fraud in their nominations — to stuff ballot boxes in areas such as Central Kenya, Rift Valley and Nyanza, where one party is dominant.
DERAIL ELECTIONS
Mr Tuju claimed that ODM has a history of attempting to derail elections, citing street protests that led to the ouster of former IEBC commissioners.
Speaking at his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi, Mr Odinga said the courts — the High Court and the Supreme Court — had ruled that the final presidential results should be announced at the constituency level. He urged IEBC to withdraw the case at the Appeal Court.
“The courts have already pronounced themselves on this matter. The IEBC must respect the law as it is,” he said, adding that even the commission has no power to alter the results declared by returning officers in the constituencies.
“The courts have already pronounced themselves on this matter. The IEBC must respect the law as it is,” he said, adding that even the commission has no power to alter the results declared by returning officers in the constituencies.
He said the comments he made during the coalition’s public rally were not meant to undermine institutions but to identify the problem in the electoral process.
A day after being accused of undermining independent institutions, the former Prime Minister warned that the poll body’s recent actions risked driving the country to the bad old days.
RETURNING OFFICERS
“The Supreme Court has gone further and stated that even returning officers have no power to alter whatever they declare in constituencies because such alterations can only be done by the courts.”
He cited the Hassan Joho vs Suleiman Shahbal election petition case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that results announced by returning officers at the constituency level are final and that such results could only be altered through a petition in the High Court.
Speaking at Jubilee’s Pangani offices in Nairobi, Mr Tuju told Nasa to stop panicking after it announced it would get 10 million votes in the elections.
10M STRONG VOTES
“One minute they talk about 10 million strong votes, and the next minute they want to boycott the poll, and by extension accept early defeat,” he said.
During a public rally in Nakuru on Sunday, Mr Odinga and his running mate, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, reiterated the elections boycott threat.
Mr Odinga further said Nasa would call its supporters to the streets for mass action if the Court of Appeal upholds the application filed by the commission.
On the same day, seven Jubilee MPs weighed in and accused Mr Odinga of intimidating independent institutions through violent tactics.
-Additional reporting by Ibrahim Oruko
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