Busia Senator Okiyah Omtatah has revealed that he had to gather for his own petition filed to challenge President William Ruto’s 50+1 win.
Speaking on JKL Live on Wednesday, September 14, Omtatah stated that he tried to reach out to the Azimio la Umoja hierarchy for support but they refused to contribute.
According to him, the petition cost him Ksh 1.6 million, a sum he had to raise by his own means.
He stated that he was determined to pursue the truth and hence did not mind spending his own money.
“ It did cost me and I believed in it. I paid roughly 1.6 million shillings to prosecute that case. I tried to get money from Azimio they could not give me. Because I was convicted I had to use my own money to file that case,” he stated.
Omtatah was one of the nine petitioners who challenged the declaration of Ruto as the winner in the August 9 election.
He argued that none of the candidates had achieved the requisite 50 per cent plus one vote in the election and thus the election ought to have been contested in another round.
However, the petition was dismissed in the ruling made on September 5 and upheld the election of William Ruto.
According to the ruling read by Chief Justice Martha Koome on September 5, the court was convinced that the declared winner met the threshold of 50 per cent plus one vote.
“The Court found that the declared President-elect attained 50%+1 of all the votes cast in accordance with Article 138(4) of the Constitution,” CJ Koome read.
The Busia Senator has however remained adamant that he disagrees with the verdict.
“The judges thought otherwise, that is water under the bridge it does not mean I lost and we have gone over it,” he stated.
Omtatah rode on his rich profile on his way to being elected as the Senator for Busia in the concluded general election.
Despite being a trained mechanical engineer, Omtatah has been recognised as a renowned litigator of matters of public interest. He was admitted as an honorary member of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) in 2020.
