Deputy President William Ruto
Prior to the pre-trial session for the presidential case on Tuesday, August 30, the Supreme Court of Kenya has rejected three applications.
The request by President-elect William Ruto to exclude the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) from the case was denied.
Since Martha Karua, the petitioner, is a member of the LSK and a former leader, Ruto had contended that the LSK could not be impartial in the situation.
The society had submitted a request to be included in the petition as an amicus curiae, claiming to have the knowledge necessary to assist the supreme court in making a just conclusion.
The Agano Party’s plea to be included in the petition was likewise denied by the Supreme Court.
Agano was attempting to counter the case filed by the petitioners against the IEBC’s pronouncement of William Ruto as the next president.
The Supreme Court also denied Ruto’s request to have the affidavits of six IEBC commissioners thrown out.
The commissioners are Boya Molu, Abdi Guliye, Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit, and Juliana Cherera.
The breakaway IEBC commissioners, also known as Cherera, Wanderi, Masit, and Nyang’aya, claimed in their affidavits that the presidential election of August 9, 2022 was not transparent because chairperson Wafula Chebukati “unilaterally declared Ruto the president-elect” without accurately tallying results from a number of constituencies.
The commission was defended by commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye, who claimed that the results accurately reflected the will of the electorate, in their affidavits.
In his argument, Ruto claimed that the commissioners (Cherera, Wanderi, Masit, and Nyang’aya) were forbidden by the petition from “masquerading as responders” in order to produce second-tier petitioners.
The Supreme Court also denied Moses Kuria’s petition to have Raila Odinga’s presidential lawsuit over the Bomas of Kenya chaos on August 15 dismissed. Kuria was an outgoing Gatundu South MP.
The court also mandated that Kuria receive his Sh1 million deposit that he made when filing the petition back.
