In a petition submitted to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), Martha Karua, the leader of the NARC-Kenya party, and the Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) organization criticized the actions of the Supreme Court and the IEBC during the presidential elections on August 9.
Karua and Muhuri claim that by upholding President William Ruto’s victory, the Supreme Court and the IEBC violated Kenyans’ human rights and failed to uphold the country’s democratic principles.
“We had a very weak election management body when the polls began. With the help of stakeholders and the constitutional environment set up to safeguard its independence and enhance the appropriate discharge of its mandate, we had hoped that it would succeed in overcoming those obstacles. That didn’t take place, “reads the declaration.
“In 2022, the IEBC did not register more than 8 million eligible voters, and it did not make a sincere effort to remove all of the problems found in prior audits from its problematic voter register. It did not publish the Register as required by law or audit the Register within the time frame set forth by law.
The petitioners also insisted that IEBC delegated the management of the technology and results transmission system to contractors whom it allegedly had no control over and did not adequately supervise. They continued by asserting that the problems with the Register compromised the integrity of the presidential election results.
“In the hopes of receiving a fair hearing, we took our disagreement to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, however, violated the right to a fair trial, undermining the rule of law in the process. It did not permit adequate examination of the electoral technology, and when it did, it turned over its actions to one of the parties, the IEBC, and did not hear the petitioners’ conclusions “the petitioners claimed.
“The IEBC Chairperson conducted the election unlawfully, according to the Court’s findings, but once more, these conclusions had no legal repercussions. Unfortunately, our petitions were rejected with insults and slurs. We think this behavior is incredibly out of character for an upper court.”
Karua, who was Raila Odinga’s running mate in the election, has indicated that she will appeal the Supreme Court decision upholding President William Ruto’s victory to the East African Court of Justice ever since the results of the election were announced (EACJ).
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