Nairobi — Azimio La Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga has alluded to the fact that there was a deliberate mischief in the use of statutory form 34A in the polling stations to indicate presidential results.
Basing their argument on an affidavit filed by Celestine Anyango, counsel Julie Soweto pointed out that 41 forms 34As sampled from Bomet, Kiambu and Kakamega counties indeed had discrepancies.
She stated that the sampled forms had the same security features as well as serial numbers but the figures indicated in the forms were totally different and switched in favour of President-Elect William Ruto (First Respondents).
"The affidavits show a deliberate mischief in the use of statutory forms set out in the elections. They were signed by the same IEBC agents but the figures have been tampered with are different with regards to the results of Odinga and Ruto," Soweto stated.
Soweto cited Anyango's affidavit revealing that in the sampled form 34As 2,793 votes were illegally added to Ruto presidential vote count.
She urged the court to put into the consideration the evidence in the affidavit given that Ruto was declared as president elect after winning the contest with 231,000 vote margin,which she termed slim.
In Chepalungu polling station for instance, the affidavit shows that the physical copy form 34A given to agents showed that Odinga had 61 votes while Ruto had 109, the IEBC portal form 34 A of the same polling station showed Odinga had 1 vote while Ruto 169 votes.
"In the 41 forms exbhited showed that votes have been reduced from Ist petitioner (Raila Odinga) and added to the 1st respondent (William Ruto).We have calculated the numbers reduced from the Odinga and added to Ruto and it showed it was 2,793 votes," Soweto stated.
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In Kakamega County, Anyango's affidavit showed that votes were intentionally deducted from Odinga's vote count in some polling stations.
Soweto elaborated that the deducted votes were not added to any candidates to ensure that the total votes counted remained the same as to hide traces of any mischief.
"The intention was to ensure that the total number of voters remained the same," she stated.
"Therefore when we look into the results and the numbers that have been tampered with either reduced or removed from Odinga.We will show those discrepancies affect the results of the elections," she added.
Odinga argued that the forms 34A received by presidential agents, those uploaded in the portal and those submitted in the national tallying center had no security features and went ahead to show different figures.
Soweto faulted the Wafula Chebukati led commission claiming that the statutory forms procured for result declaration had no security features in the first place which substantially created room for mischief.
"It's our contention that what IEBC set out to procure is not what they procured in the first instance. We can't even match the forms that we have and those provided in the elections to what they had set out to procure," she argued.
