Nairobi — Lawyer Kithure Kindiki who is representing President Elect William in the presidential petition has described the events of August 15, 2022 surrounding chaos that occurred at the Bomas of Kenya, as an attempted but failed coup d' etat.
Kindiki was citing events when a scuffle ensued at the dais as Azimio leaning politicians attempted to stop the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Cebukati from announcing the results, forcing security personnel to intervene and evacuate him.
The incident left two other commissioners including Abdi Guliye who was supposed to read results from remaining 27 constituencies injured.
According to Kindiki, the events of that day were well choreographed by agents and supporters of Raila Odinga who is the first petitioner, in a bid to overthrow the constitution, by attempting to bar the IEBC Chairman from announcing the results.
"The said activities at the national tallying center amount to an attempt to overthrow the constitution of kenya, subvert the sovereign will of the people of Kenya. It is our view that those events alone constitute an attempt to establish a government unconstitutionally, and those events are basically an attempted but failed coup d'etat," he submitted.
Kindiki also likened the violence in the National Tallying Centre to the US January 6th Capitol attack when Donald Trump was defeated and supporters stormed Capitol Hill.
He said it is unfortunate that to date no one had been questioned or recorded a statement in relation to the incident.
"On 15th August 2022, a mob of people invaded the dais of the national tallying center. Chaos erupted and several IEBC commissioners and staff were seriously injured but to date, no one has been asked to write a statement," Kindiki stated.
Kindiki further maintained that William Ruto was validly elected as the President of Kenya, following tallying, verification and declaration of results by the commission.
"The tallying was done in the presence of all agents. No one should be declared winners of an election they did not win," he stated.
On Wednesday, petitioners asked the court to nullify the presidential election on grounds that it was not conducted within the law.
The judges started hearing respondents in the petition Thursday and are expected to retreat over the weekend to write a judgement which is due on Monday.
