Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President-elect William Ruto’s election, but he expressed disagreement with the ruling.
On Monday, September 5, he issued a statement urging his supporters to uphold the law while remaining calm. He did not, however, congratulate Ruto.
“We have always stood for the rule of law and the constitution. In this regard, we respect the opinion of the court although we vehemently disagree with their decision,” read the statement in part.
Raila insisted that his legal team provided the seven-judge bench with solid proof, and he added that he thought Ruto’s election would have been nullified.
However, he criticized the seven-judge bench for dismissing their arguments without considering the facts presented to the court.
“Our lawyers proffered irrefutable evidence and the facts were on our side, unfortunately, the judges saw it otherwise. We find it incredible that the judges found against us on all nine (9) grounds and occasions resulted in unduly exaggerated language to refute our claims,” read the statement in part.
Raila was making reference to the judgment that termed some of their evidence as hot-air allegations and unproven hypotheses.
“With regards to the form 34A which was sensationally presented by Julie Soweto to show that Camargo accessed the RTS and interfered with the result contained therein, this also turned out to me no more than hot air and we were taken on a wild goose chase which yielded nothing of covertive value,” Supreme Court ruled.
Regarding the future of the coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party boss, maintained that Azimio was still strong and would continue championing the rights of Kenyans.
“This judgement is by no means the end of our movement, in fact, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to transform this country into a prosperous democracy where each and every Kenyan can find their full belonging.
“We thank our supporters and Kenyans across the country for standing with us. We will be communicating in the near future on our plans to continue our struggle for transparency, accountability and democracy.”
The statement by Raila came minutes after the Supreme Court upheld the election victory of Ruto as they determined that Raila and other petitioners failed to prove that the DP was elected illegitimately.
