Did Raila’s Claims That Carmago Is Back Suggested He Did Not Win The Elections?
The Mt Kenya Times 
Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- To prove this, you are supposed to present to this honorable court the hand copies of results filled at polling stations or at the constituencies tallying centers and soft/electronic copies from the same stations showing the results submitted were different.
- On realizing they had been cornered since they lacked evidence, one of their lawyers resorted to what was widely interpreted as acts of desperation.
- She looked at her Laptop and drew the attention of judges to one of the Form filled in one of the polling station and claimed it contained ‘the irregularities and variances we are talking about’.
- But upon scrutiny of the Form by the ICT experts, it turned out the Form was fake. It was nothing but ‘vivaranga wa computer’ a computer-generated dummy.
While addressing a Kamukunji protest rally a few days ago, Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga claimed that Jose Carmago, a Venezuelan, who was on the spotlight during the hearing of the election petition seeking to overturn President William Ruto’s victory he had filed at Supreme Court of Kenya (SCoK) is back.
He had sensationally claimed that the Venezuelan was the team leader of four foreign hackers allegedly hired by Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto to tamper with the election technology used to transmit votes to the National Tallying Center at the Bomas of Kenya.
He used to ‘intercept’ and ‘alter’ the results and this was in favor of Dr Ruto.
As such, the results relayed from some of the constituencies did not reflect the will of the Kenyan people, he further alleged.
As per the law, the onus to prove these claims lied squarely with him.
I’m sure those who followed the proceedings would agree with me. His lawyers were unable to prove these claims.
This is after being put to task by the lawyers representing other parties particularly IEBC and President Elect William Ruto.
In their submissions, the lawyers wanted Raila team to demonstrate how the results were altered.
To prove this, you are supposed to present to this honorable court the hand copies of results filled at polling stations or at the constituencies tallying centers and soft/electronic copies from the same stations showing the results submitted were different.
On realizing they had been cornered since they lacked evidence, one of their lawyers resorted to what was widely interpreted as acts of desperation.
She looked at her Laptop and drew the attention of judges to one of the Form filled in one of the polling station and claimed it contained ‘the irregularities and variances we are talking about’.
But upon scrutiny of the Form by the ICT experts, it turned out the Form was fake. It was nothing but ‘vivaranga wa computer’ a computer-generated dummy.
There is the far they would go in trying to convince the court that the process of the results transmission had been ‘tampered with’.
So, in the final judgement, the judges did not find Carmago culpable.
In a unanimous decision, the justices dismissed and termed this and other allegations submitted by Azimio as hot air. None of them met the threshold of law.
Unlike in the aftermath of polls held in 2007 and 2017 respectively when he immediately incited his supporters to come out and fight for the reversal of what he termed as his ‘stolen victory’, this time Raila would not make such moves.
Many interpreted this as a sign that he had accepted the defeat and he was ready to move on.
So, did someone prompt him to change his mind? Did he opt to do this after realizing the new government of President William Ruto had no time for him?
Earlier reports had indicated he was angling himself for a ‘nusu Mkate’ or ‘handshake’ government.
Raila kicked out demonstrations five months later.
Ever since, the opening of 2022 presidential election servers has stood as one of his demands.
Initially, he was piling pressure on President Ruto to expedite this process.
Some days later, the president reminded him. How do you ask a competitor to open the servers? I have no power under the law to do this. Direct your questions to the relevant institutions.
But I want to tell. You are wasting your time. I defeated you fairly and squarely.
So you have only one option: to accept and move on.
Raila would stick to the gun and he has up to date maintained this momentum.
The only thing he has done is to shift pressure to the IEBC.
Some of the Kenya Kwanza leaders have been reminding him. He has another option and that is returning to SCoK. However, the court will only listen you if you have new evidence.
In view of his latest remarks, it seems that Raila has realized after unleashing all his political tricks all of them have backfired or hit a dead end.
For Jose Carmago, I’m sure he has been advised by his lawyers that he is wasting his time. There is no evidence to pin him down.
He has made his supporters to believe that this is the man who had betrayed him and he had a compelling case against him.
How does he manage the high expectations of his supporters?
The best card is to say that Jose is back to tamper with technology used to relay the results.
So, this means our efforts to pursue ‘truth’ and ‘justice’ will not bore fruits.
This explains why he wants Kenyans to believe Carmago has been brought back by President Ruto.
The other thing is that Raila may have gotten information that the Venezuelan is planning file defamatory charges against him. So, this could be a strategy meant to disarm and weaken his case.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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