Stinging words for challengers of the election result

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the outcome of last month’s presidential election.

Chief Justice Martha Koome dismissed all claims by Raila Odinga and other petitioners and said they failed to prove their claims.

In a strongly worded judgment, the court rejected the evidence and arguments by the petitioners, which it described at one point as “hot air, red herrings, and forgeries”.

On the four of seven commissioners of the electoral body who disowned the results, the court asked: “Are we to nullify the outcome of an election on the basis of a last-minute boardroom rupture whose details remain scanty?”

The judges found that it would amount to upsetting the sovereign will of the people.

President-elect William Ruto will be sworn in next Tuesday as prescribed by the constitution.

This was Raila Odinga’s fifth unsuccessful bid to become president, and in his words, at the age of 77, the final attempt.