Chief Justice David Maraga at the Supreme court on Wednesday, September 20. [PHOTO/the-star.co.ke]
The Supreme Court judges have vowed to nullify any other presidential petition should the letter and spirit of the Constitution be violated again.
They said that their ruling 'heavily indicting the IEBC' should lead 'to a soul-searching' by the commission and should help them 'go back to the drawing board'.
"If not, this court, whenever called upon to adjudicate on a similar dispute will reach the same decision if the anomalies remain the same, irrespective of who the aspirants may be," Chief Justice David Maraga said as quoted by the Star.
The judges in their 178-page majority ruling questioned the rationale of having a good Constitution if it is not followed.
"For as long as the Constitution of Kenya has the provisions granting this court the mandate to overturn a presidential election in appropriate circumstances, it will do so because the people of Kenya, in the preamble to the Constitution, adopted, enacted and gave unto themselves the Constitution for themselves and future generations," the judges stated.
The judges claimed that the court's powers of invalidating a presidential election were not self-given nor forcibly taken but are donated by the people of Kenya.
To close our eyes to constitutional violations would be a dereliction of duty and we refuse to accept the invitation to do so however popular the invitation may seem," they said
"Therefore, however burdensome, let the majesty of the Constitution reverberate across the lengths and breadths of our motherland; let it bubble from our rivers and oceans; let it boomerang from our hills and mountains; let it serenade our households from the trees; let it sprout from our institutions of learning; let it toll from our sanctums of prayer; and to those, who bear the responsibility of leadership, let it be a constant irritant."