Ugandan legislators have hailed the Kenyan judiciary for exhibiting what they described as independence in the nullification of the recent presidential elections.
The Supreme court of Kenya on 1st septemper 2017 in an unexpected judgement on the African continent nullified the election win of Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, ordering for fresh polls within two months.
In his ruling, Kenya Chief Justice David Maraga said the electoral body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), neglected and refused to conduct the elections as the law requires.
MPs including Silas Aogon (Kumi Municipality), Gaffa Mbwatekamwa (Kasambya) and John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya) described the ruling as a landmark in the history of Africa where sitting presidents are not easy to challenge in courts.
The judiciary has exhibited independence and high sense of credibility that they are able to overturn an election of a president still in power which cannot happen in Uganda Nambeshe said.
The MPs said they were doubtful that opposition candidate Raila Odinga would win an election petition.
We doubted, we did not trust even the court in Kenya but now this has happened.
I now have hope because we never thought that someone can challenge a sitting president and win,Mbwatekamwa said.
Aogon said The judiciary in Kenya acted on the basis of independence. It means the three arms,judiciary, executive and parliament are acting independently.
I am now looking for peaceful and fair election so that Kenyans will accept the results the way they will be declared in the next election.
Odinga petitioned court on grounds that his opponent Kenyatta won the elections by fraud since the IBEC had not followed the law in adding up voting tallies and instead presented forged results to give victory to Kenyatta who was seeking re-election.
The Supreme court of Kenya nullified the election win of Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta and ordered for fresh elections within 60 days.
Kenya’s Chief Justice David Maraga said the electoral body, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) failed, neglected and refused to conduct the elections as required by law.
The unprecedented court victory on the African continent is surely sweet music to veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga’s ears who challenged President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election earlier last month.
Odinga, a former prime minister, charged that Kenyatta won the elections by fraud. Odinga said that the electoral commission did not follow the law in adding up voting tallies and presented fictitious results that had been changed to give victory to Kenyatta.
Odinga’s lawyers charged that the original voting results forms were replaced with forms lacking security features such as a bar codes, watermarks and stamps. Most international observers have said the election results are credible.
The opposition leader rejected the August 11 electoral commission declaration that Kenyatta won the presidential race with 54 percent of the vote.
The announcement sparked two days of protests by Odinga’s supporters. Police suppressed the protests violently using bullets and tear gas.
The election petition was filed 90 minutes before the deadline and included more than 25,000 pages in an affidavit.
The historic ruling by the Supreme Court of Kenya that overturned the August 8 re-election of president Uhuru Kenyatta may bring further scrutiny to the role of international observers in African elections.
Election observer reports have been criticised by opposition groups in many African countries, including Uganda on several occasions. The reports, most of the time, pass elections as free and fair regardless of what complaints may be raised about them.
Zimbabwe is an outstanding case where observers allied to the West have in the recent past declared the re-election of president Robert Mugabe as having fallen below the required standards. But the practice is usually to endorse the re-election of incumbents.
After the different observer missions accredited to Kenya seemed to give the August election a clean bill of health, even as Mr Raila Odinga protested about the transmission and tallying of results, saying the system was hacked, the observers came under fire from Mr Odinga's team.
Reacting to statements by observers that seemed to endorse the election, Mr Odinga said: "Shame on them".
Mr James Orengo, who would eventually form part of Mr Odinga's legal team, offered the most stinging criticism of the observers, saying in future, it may be necessary to first examine the relationships between the individual observers and incumbents in the elections they were meant to observe. He claimed that there exists a strong relationship between Mr Uhuru and former Ghanaian president John Dramani Mahama.
What some observers said about the election
We commend the IEBC for ensuring that overall law and order prevailed throughout the electoral process observed.," - Prof Edward Rugumayo, head of the East African Community Election Observation Mission to Kenya
Kenya has made a remarkable statement to Africa and the world about its democracy and the character of that democracy." - John Kerry, former US Secretary of State and headed the Carter Centre observer mission
"The opening, voting, closing and counting process... were credible and transparent." - John Dramani Mahama, former president of Ghana who headed the Commonwealth Election Observation Mission to Kenya
"I can give an account of what happened at the polling station where I was and I'm quite sure that nobody would be able to lodge any complaint of what happened there." - Thabo Mbeki, former South Africa president
"I have seen no signs of centralised or localised manipulation of the voting process." - Marietje Schaake, head of the European Union election observer mission
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