Supreme Court Battle: 10 Tough Questions Posed By Judges to Raila Odinga's Lawyers

The jury at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, August 31, presided over the first day of the presidential election petition hearing.

The day was characterised by submissions made by attorneys from the petitioners with Senior Counsel James Orengo kick-starting the plenary with a presentation in defence of the main petitioners; Raila Odinga and Martha Karua.

At the tail end of the first day's proceedings, the judges posed questions to the lawyers who took to the floor to argue their client's cases, perhaps to seek clarity.

Justice William Ouko

To start off the jury's series of countering questions was Justice William Ouko who questioned the arguments by the lawyers of the main petitioner, led by Orengo.

"What is the relevance of rejected votes when computing the results or the outcome of a vote,"

Addressed to Soweto; "The postponement of elections in certain areas which you said resulted in voter suppression...Do we have any scientific nexus on this or is it just an assumption,"

On the reliefs sought by most petitioners; "What are some of the elements that must be satisfied before the court can grant the reliefs?

Justice Isaac Lenaola

To Philip Murgor; "In the context of staging and tampering of results, explain how that happens,"

To Advocate Jotham Arua: "We saw your clients, the four commissioners, reading the results until the 11th hour. What evidence do we have showing that they documented their grievances and that there was something brewing"

To IEBC and Raila lawyers: "What role did violence play at the Bomas of Kenya."

Justice Njoki Ndung'u

To Philip Murgor: "What you are telling us is that form 34 As went to the KIEMS kit at the polling station to the constituency, then from the constituency and the portal, the numbers were changed. I presume that when the KIEMS kits take the image, and the forms were filled in handwriting, how can you explain then how a form can be changed in handwriting because this is not typed?

To Julie Soweto: "On the issue of voter repression, each of these elections are separately provided for meaning they are six separate elections in one. Is the voter repression only to the presidential election or is that an argument that can be used by an MCA in Kakamega County to say that because the gubernatorial vote has been cancelled, my vote was affected because they were all separate election?"

Justice Smokin Wanjala

To James Orengo: "The elephant in the room is 50 percent plus one. What is the relevance of the percentage of the voter turnout to determine whether a candidate marshalled the magical number?"

To Philip Murgor: "The original form 34A leaves the polling station to the tallying centre by road, its image goes to the same destination virtually. Somewhere it is compromised which means you would find different content. To determine this, you would need the physical form. Is it possible that the capturing that happened mid-air also somehow magically changes the content of the one that left by road?"

To the Four dissenting commissioners: Is this chairperson that we are dealing with such a terror that nobody can face him?