Kenya election petition: Pre-trial set for Saturday

Kenya’s supreme court is set to hold pre-trial conference on opposition’s petition against the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday (August 26) at 7 pm local time, the office of the registrar said.

“Kindly note that all counsel appearing before the court should be fully robed,” reads the notice signed by Registrar of the Supreme Court Esther Nyaiyaki.

The sitting will be used to set rules of engagement, identify issues of dispute, to consider in advance whether there is any issue relating to any argument, readmission of other documents and to determine whether technical experts will be needed.

The meeting will also determine the length of each sitting and also cross examine if digital or electronic evidence— including confessions and video, or audio-recorded interviews can be included in the case. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had filed its response at the Supreme Court in Nairobi. The IEBC filed 54,000 supporting documents that include forms 34A from all the polling stations all over the country and forms 34B from 290 constituencies.

President Uhuru Kenyatta together with his lawyers also presented their response to the court in the course of the week. He later expressed confidence to winning the case against the opposition coalition lead by Raila Odinga.

The opposition through its main lawyer, James Orengo later said most of the 54,000 papers filed by IEBC have no security features as stipulated in their Acts.

“We have a bombshell…in my many years of practice I have never seen such magnitude of forgery. A majority of IEBC papers are fake,” said the Opposition lawyer.

The Supreme Court had warned the involved parties from public utterances that could undermine the judiciary.

“When political leaders cast aspersions on the administration of justice based on a misinterpretation of my statements, it has the potential to impair public confidence in our courts, and this concerns me a great deal,” the Chief Justice David Maraga raised.

The Supreme court has until Friday to give a verdict on on the case.