On September 1, the IEBC responded to claims that it had undervalued the overall number of voters that participated in the presidential election on August 9.
The overall figures read out by the commission’s chairman Wafula Chebukati on August 15 were accurate and neither overstated nor underestimated, according to IEBC, which was represented by attorney Mahat Somane before the Supreme Court.
William Ruto’s election as president-elect has been contested by Raila Odinga on the grounds that the election was defective and rigged, understating the number of Kenyans who cast ballots, among other irregularities.
14,326,751 voters, or 64.77 percent of Kenya’s 22,120,458 registered voters, cast ballots in the presidential election, according to IEBC’s report on Thursday.
The 14.33 million figure provided by Somane included both voters who were recognized by KIEMS kits and those who cast ballots after being recognized by the manual register.
Only 14,239,862 were registered by KIEMS kits, according to the attorney. Out of the total 46,229 polling places, this group cast their ballots in 45,994 of them.
According to Somane, 86,889 people cast ballots after being manually recognized when KIEMS kits failed to work. He said that this gang cast votes at 229 polling places.
On election day, the KIEMS kits were unsuccessful in various locations, including Makueni and Kakamega counties.
Six polling places, three in the Khwisero Constituency and three in the Eldas Constituency, were affected by the violence, which made voting risky, according to attorney Somane.
Odinga has claimed that the voting turnout reported by the IEBC did not match the total number of votes received by all presidential contenders.
The petitioner claims that more than 65.4% of people cast ballots.
Raila Odinga of the Azimio la Umoja party received 6.94 million votes, while William Ruto of the UDA party received 7.18 million votes, or 50.49 percent of the vote, according to IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati (48.85 per cent).
In a press conference on August 16, four dissident commissioners, Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang’aya, Irene Masit, and Francis Wanderi, said that the commission was unable to account for some 142,000 ballots, which “surpassed the voter turnout.”
They asserted that the total number of votes cast in Chebukati exceeded the national average by 0.01 percent, or 142,000 votes.
“The four presidential contenders received a total of 100.01 percent of the votes cast,”
that is 142,000, in other words. The outcomes will be much different as a result,” Cherera said.
She claimed that IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati was informed of the issue by her and the other three commissioners, but he insisted on declaring the presidential results without addressing the issues stated.
