Siaya Senator James Orengo. [Photo/ The Star]
Reports that the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition plans to announce to the country the final tally of the presidential election results should be condemned in the strongest terms possible. On Friday, Siaya Senator James Orengo said NASA intends to announce their own results in case IEBC delays in revealing the final outcome of what looks like a hotly contested election. The senator, who has been the lead lawyer in the court cases that NASA has filed in court to derail IEBC’s preparedness in conducting a credible election, said their planned move is prepare the people of Kenya ‘should IEBC try to compromise the results’.
"“As IEBC will be counting, we will also count. When they transmit, our agents will also transmit,” Orengo said. The only body with the constitutional mandate to announce the election results of the presidential contest is IEBC. NASA, or anyone else, has the right to do their own calculations of the results, but cannot declare the winner or loser of the polls. What NASA is doing is prepare their supporters to reject the results of the presidential election in case Raila Odinga loses to Jubilee Party’s Uhuru Kenyatta. All opinion polls conducted so far predict a landslide win for President Kenyatta. What Raila needs to do is vow to recognize what IEBC will announce as the correct outcome. If aggrieved, he is free to challenge the outcome at the Supreme Court, just like he did in 2013. What NASA is planning has the potential to take the country back to what was witnessed in 2007/8, during which more than 1,200 people lost their lives and another 600, 000 were displaced from their homes after Raila disputed the presidential election results and called on his supporters to go to the streets for mass action. Kenyans learnt a bitter lesson, and cannot accept to be used by politicians again. The Opposition can make better use of their ‘tallying centre’. Why not gather evidence of any electoral malpractice and present the evidence in court — if it comes to that?