President-elect of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta and his designated deputy William Ruto have formally launched a legal battle to retain their declared victory by responding to Mr. Raila Odinga's petition, which stands between them and formal assumption of power.

Both Jubilee leaders filed their affidavits, challenging issues Raila raised in pursuit of annulment of their victory in the Supreme Court.

In response to Raila's claims on the integrity of the results declared by the electoral body, they claimed the Prime Minister was circumventing justice, "as a means to negotiate his way into their government."

But even as the Supreme Court before which the three landmark petitions already filed were mentioned Wednesday - warned the parties to desist from commenting on these cases, it emerged Wednesday that remarks made by the PM and his political allies in the past 10 days would form part of the evidence to be used against him in the petition.

Uhuru has submitted in court video clips and news reports on virtually all the public statements that Raila and others especially that of Machakos Senator-elect Johnson Muthama, have made on the elections and the outcome.

In one of the clips, Raila was recorded as saying the victory was stolen from him and that they (Uhuru and Ruto) are criminals who should be in jail. In another, the PM is on tape to have said he won the elections by garnering 52 to 53 per cent of the votes cast.

According to the constitution of Kenya, a newly elected president cannot be sworn-in unless all electoral petitions have been resolved and at the moment PM Raila Odinga is challenging the conduct of the 4th March elections in Kenya's Supreme Court. Verdict is expected in 10 days after filling of the petition.