NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga with CJ David Maraga. Photo/the-star.co.ke
New details have emerged on events that led to Raila Odinga led NASA’s resort to take their rigging claims to Supreme Court.
Following the alleged rigging by their Jubilee rivals, Odinga’s stalwarts dismissed any possibility of approaching the courts as a means of seeking justice.
During a press briefing last Friday, Siaya Senator James Orengo who also acted as the outfit’s deputy chief agent at the Bomas tallying centre stated outright that they were not going to accept Uhuru Kenyatta’s win but the “courts were not an alternative” for them in their quest to contest an alleged vote rigging.
Reports now indicate that the coalition was to take part in a presidential petition nevertheless even with their hard-line tackle against calls for legal contest at the Justice David Maraga’s bench.
Raila Odinga’s advisor Salim Lone has been quoted by a section of the media saying they intended to ride on petitions by Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) and Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).
Their hopes dashed after NGOs Coordination Board launched a merciless hunt for the two bodies for flouting the law in their operations.
The board’s boss Mohamed Fazul said: “AfriCOG is not registered under the NGOs Co-ordination Act 1990 as required by law.”
“In fact”, he added, “AfriCOG is and continues to operate as a charitable organisation in direct contravention of Section 22(1) which according to the Act is an offence punishable by law.”
Fazul’s move on AfriCOG came in after de-registration of another high profile Kenyan non-profit, the KHRC on Monday.
KHRC were putting their act together to file a petition challenging the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
As these events unfolded, Mr Odinga’s team became more frustrated. They were still nursing wounds of a poll defeat after IEBC’s declaration on Friday that gave Mr Kenyatta five more years in office.