Role of foreigners questioned in Kenya elections
Friday September 02 2022
IEBC lead counsel Prof Githu Muigai (left) and Raila Odinga's lead lawyer James Orengo at the Supreme Court on September 2, 2022. PHOTOS | NMG
The role of foreigners dominated the final submissions on the petition challenging the presidential results of General Election in Kenya.
The controversy, which had played out before the elections, re-emerged in the afternoon session on Friday. It saw former Attorney-General Prof Githu Muigai, defending the Independent Electoral Commission and Raila Odinga’s lead lawyer James Orengo face off over forms loaded into the public portal while bearing the name of Venezuelan Jose Camargo.
Mr Odinga, and several other petitioners, have challenged the win of president-elect William Ruto, citing irregularities, including claims that foreigners contracted to run the electronic voter identification system manipulated results forms loaded in a public portal.
Mr Odinga’s legal team had submitted one such form bearing the name of Mr Carmago. Advocate Julie Soweto projected a form from Gacharaigo Primary School in Murang’a County that allegedly bore the name of Mr Camargo.
“From where I am, the IEBC stamp is looking like it has been superimposed over another stamp. We have been asked to show how the figures change,” she argued.
“If we look at the votes cast, the first figure is for Raila Odinga 55, Ruto 260, Mwaure 1 and Wajackoyah 0. If we sum up the total votes we get 316. The total votes cast as per this form is 321. Different from what we have seen. Which means by calculation there is already a problem,” she said.
“We were told by Mr Eric Gumbo (IEBC lawyer) there were no foreigners in this election. We were told they did not have access to the servers. At the top left corner we have the name of Jose Camargo. This is the person who decided the outcome of the election. How did that come there?” She posed.
Ms Soweto argued that Mr Carmago was interfering with the Form 34As.
"A crumb was left. By God's grace, we found something. We didn't make this up. This, my lords, is how the staging was happening."
Later, the IEBC’s lawyer Mahat Somane said the forms had been photographed over an envelope bearing Carmago’s name, which had borne a physical register of voters printed by his firm Smartmatic.
“What Julie Soweto displayed in court with the name Jose Carmago was an overlay of Form 34A and not the original form.
“The document bearing the name of Jose Carmago is from the QR voters’ registers distributed to all polling stations.”
Mr Carmago was among Venezuelans who had been arrested at the airport in possession of electoral materials, an action that IEBC termed as harassment of its officials.
However, IEBC and police later on announced at a press conference that the matter had been resolved.
The Supreme Court judges, however, said they will decide on materials to use while making their judgement, which will be delivered on Monday.
Supreme Court president Martha Koome said the judgment will be delivered on Monday, but a notice on time will be issued prior.
Check out our other coverage of the Supreme Court proceedings:
Judiciary report: IEBC used second set of results forms
Watch: Live video - Kenya poll petition: Day of rejoinders
Tech firm declines to open servers to Raila
88 top lawyers battle it out in Kenya poll petition
Court settles row on who IEBC lawyer is