GOODBYE: RAILA ODINGA MAKES A U-TURN

Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga now doesn’t want a fresh election despite claiming that the just concluded one was not held in a free and fair manner.

The ODM chief has since moved to the Supreme Court to dispute the outcome of the poll, which shows that he lost to Deputy President William Ruto.

But in fresh papers availed before the court yesterday, he now doesn’t want another election, on grounds that the outcome won’t be any different.

The leader argues that the IEBC has made it a habit to bungle elections, and cannot be trusted with any other election as it will still be marred with rigging.

He notes that the same way IEBC bungled the 2017 poll and the August 9 one, the fresh one, if ordered, will also go the same way.

Its for this reason that he has demanded that the court simply scrutinize the forms, recount the votes and name the winner rather than a new election.

“The conduct of the 2022 presidential election must therefore be framed against the backdrop of what happened in 2017 and the following warning that this Court sounded when it annulled the presidential election conduct on,” he says in his final submission that was seen by The Standard.

Raila has included his running mate Martha Karua in the petition, where he is trying to undo IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati’s announcement of Ruto as winner.

He wants the court to declare the announcement a nullity, and proceed to declare the IEBC as unable to conduct an election in its current form.

“The Petitioners contend that the conduct of the 09th August 2022 presidential election, subverted the constitutional order that Kenyans fought for; and the aspirations of the people for a government based on national values and principles including rule of law,” the submission further reads.

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