The Farmers Party of Kenya, an outfit allied to President-elect William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition, wants to join the presidential election petition that is pending in the Supreme Court. The party filed the application on Thursday seeking to join the petition lodged by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua.
Through lawyer Chege Kamau, the outfit wants to participate in the case as an interested party because the “the petition affects the farmers of different parts of the country directly and as such they have [a] stake in the dispute”.
“We will suffer prejudice if not joined as a party in these proceedings. The proposed interested party is a political party which participated in the concluded general elections,” Mr Kamau says in the application.
“Its objective is to safeguard the interest of ordinary farmers and whose membership majorly comprises ordinary farmers and voters.”
He adds that the party, led by Murang’a County gubernatorial polls loser Irungu Nyakera, represents 65 percent of ordinary voters and they participated in the August 9 presidential election.
Therefore, he contends, their input in the court proceedings is crucial.
“[Whereas] Mr Odinga, Ms Karua, the electoral commission and its commissioners, Dr Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua will be arguing about disputed figures and alleged manipulation of results, the gist of our case will be to demonstrate how an ordinary farmer and voter exercised his constitutional right to vote,” Mr Kamau argues.
Download a copy of Raila’s Supreme Court petition: Raila Odinga petition download
“We will also demonstrate the ordinary farmer’s perception of the general conduct and process of the elections at the polling station.”
In the court papers, the party says it intends to raise four issues and questions, such as whether ordinary voters perceived the disputed election process to be free, verifiable and transparent.
Secondly, they want to raise the question of whether there is recourse in the event the chairperson of the electoral commission declines to declare the presidential results.
The third issue is whether it is a preserve of the commission to deliberate or discuss the election results generated at a polling station.
The fourth is whether such a discussion interferes with the will and power of an ordinary farmer or voter.
“If the party is not joined in these proceedings, the court will lose an opportunity of its kind to decide on the undecided and unpleaded issue of the implication of disputes within the IEBC,” Mr Kamau says.
“The court will also lose [an] opportunity to proactively address the plausible event where the chair of the electoral commission refuses to declare or is hindered from declaring the presidential results which might jeopardise the stability and general security of the country which our founding fathers fought hard to establish,” he adds.
The application is supported by farmers from Murang’a, Bomet, Nyamira, Kisii, Kericho and Kakamega counties.
One of them, Julius Mochama Mumbo, a farmer in Nyamira, says in an affidavit that voting and the tallying and verification of votes in the August 9 elections was peaceful and he did not hear or experience any complaints or disputes at his local polling station at Esani Primary School.
Candidates for “all the other seats in my ward, constituency and county commended the IEBC for work well done”, he says in his affidavit.
“I believe that the process was fair, transparent and verifiable and that my vote [was] duly reflected at the polling station. Some of my preferred candidates were successful and others lost. Nonetheless, I was satisfied with the process conducted by the commission.”
A status conference on the petition is planned for Monday, when Supreme Court judges, led by Chief Justice Martha Koome, will issue directions on the application. BY DAILY NATION