Martha Karua moves to East African Court of Justice over 2022 Presidential election outcome

NARC-Kenya party leader Martha Karua and the Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) group have filed a petition before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) challenging the conduct of the Supreme Court and the IEBC during the August 9 presidential elections.

In a statement released on Friday, Karua and Muhuri maintain that both the Supreme Court and the IEBC failed Kenya's democracy and infringed on the human rights of Kenyans when they ratified President William Ruto's win.

"We went into the elections with a severely challenged election management body. We had hoped that it would overcome those challenges, with the support of stakeholders and the constitutional ecosystem put in place to protect its independence and advance the proper execution of its mandate. That did not happen," reads the statement.

"In 2022, the IEBC did not register over 8 million eligible voters; it did not make a serious attempt to rid its problematic voter register of all the issues identified from previous audits. It did not audit the Register within the legally stipulated time or publish the Register as required by law."

The petitioners went on to state that the issues around the Register affected the integrity of the presidential poll results while similarly insisting that IEBC left the management of the technology and results' transmission system to contractors who it allegedly had no control over and did not adequately supervise.

"We took our dispute to the Supreme Court, hoping for a fair hearing. However, the Supreme Court undermined the rule of law by violating the right to a fair trial. It did not allow for proper scrutiny of the election technology and, where it did, it surrendered its conduct to one of the parties, the IEBC, and declined to hear the petitioners' findings," said the petitioners.

"The Court also found that the Chairperson of the IEBC conducted the election in an unlawful manner, but these findings again had no legal consequences. Regrettably, our petitions were dismissed with epithets and name-calling. We believe this conduct is so uncharacteristic of an apex court."