Chief Justice David Maraga. [Photo/ nation.co.ke]After three weeks of anxiously waiting to know why the four Supreme Court judges nullified the presidential election result, it was even shocking to hear them say that they used imaginary evidence to reach extremely rare decision.Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, while reading the judgement of the majority, admitted that they feared that IEBC severs, which were used for the electronic transmission of results, may have been compromised. Evidence? Because IEBC did not provide proof that its systems were not infiltrated.You do not need to be a lawyer to know that anyone who alleges must provide evidence in court. It was Raila Odinga, the petitioner, who was required by law to provide evidence that the electoral body’s systems had been hacked to change results. Dissenting judges Njoki Ndung’u and J.B Ojwang highly said that Raila did not provide any evidence that the election had been hacked. They dismissed the petition, saying it lacked merit. And for that, they have won the praise of Kenyans, who have wondered why Judge Ojwang is not the chief justice and Ndung’u his deputy. Judge Ndung’u exposed the majority judges for taking as plain truth the submissions of Raila’s lawyers, ignoring the responses of IEBC. It was sad to learn that the other judges did not verify forms from Nyali constituency, which Raila’s lawyers presented as evidence that there were irregularities. Upon checking them, she found that they had been signed by agents and election officials, contrary to what the petitioner had claimed. Justice Mwilu said because IEBC did not fully open its servers to NASA, because of security fears, the judges assumed that the systems had been hacked. In short, they did not find any evidence of votes being tampered with, yet went ahead to nullify President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory. As Justice Njoki said in her closing statements, the decision of the majority was political and that external forces had a hand in the ruling. That is to say that the judges may have been influenced by politicians. This shouldn’t happen at the highest court in the land. Justice Ojwang, a highly respected scholar, said the court had set a dangerous precedent, which has opened the door for total confusion to enter. Because of that ruling, the country is now in a perilous path.

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