Julie Soweto. Photo by The Judiciary Kenya
Raila Odinga’s and Martha Karua’s lawyers Julie Soweto, Paul Mwangi and their colleagues have today presented evidence to prove their allegations that the 2022 presidential election results were decided by Venezuelan national Camargo Jose Gregorio Castellanos Carmago and not Wafula Chebukati, the chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), or even his fellow commissioners.
Soweto told the Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome that while three Venezuelans had left Kenya sometime before August 08, it was shocking to see the name of one of them, Jose Carmago, still appearing on Forms 34A.
Camargo Castellanos Jose Gregorio was one of the three Venezuelans arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on July 21 with election materials. The other two, who were also said to be staff of Smartmatic International B.V, the company that provided IEBC technology, were: Joel Gustavo Rodríguez García and Salvador Javier Suarez.
It is this Carmago man that Soweto and other Odinga lawyers believe decided that William Samoei Ruto should be the winner of the hotly contested election. Carmago is accused of altering forms 34A to give Ruto an edge over Odinga.
Mwangi and Soweto laboured to show the Supreme Court justices a Form 34A that had been edited to have numbers changed in favour of Ruto.
In the top left corner of this form, Odinga’s lawyers proved, there was the name of Jose Camargo, something they consider an important trail of the editing of results to favour Odinga.
The form was from Gicharaigu Primary School 02 in Kangema and was downloaded from the IEBC portal.
“We were told by my colleague Mr Gumbo that there were no foreigners in this election. We were told the foreigners left before the 8th of August. We were told they did not even have access to maintain the server,” said Soweto.
“At the top left hand corner there is the name of one of the Venezuelans, Jose Carmago. This is the person who decided the president-elect of the country.”
“We believe these are the fingerprints of one of the suspects of the theft of this election,” added Mwangi.
Counsel Soweto was not done. She showed the apex court that the stamp that seemed to have been superimposed. This superimposing, the lawyer suggested, seemed to be as a result of attempts to alter the results.
“If we sum up the total votes, we get 316. The total votes cast according to this particular form is 321, different from what we have just seen. The rejected votes are four, which means already by calculation, there is a problem,” argued Soweto.
“A close scrutiny of the form shows that the number was probably 455 and the 5 is actually similar to figures written in the votes cast. But somebody or somehow, that figure has been changed to make it look like 488.”
Also interesting from Soweto’s submission was the revelation that two Kiems kits for two different polling stations had the same serial number: F230450M00204133.
“This is the same KIEMS kit as one from Mt Elgon 1000 kilometres from Nyeri town, two hours later, how is that possible?” asked Soweto. “Each polling station had its own unique Kiems kit which was supposed to transmit its own unique address.”
Nobody seemed to have summed up Jose Carmago’s hand in the alleged alteration of results than lawyer Willis Otieno.
“We were told Camargo is like a plumber maintaining the system. Once a plumber has fixed your bathroom, when you are showering if you find him you tell him: ‘get behind me Satan!’ A plumber who is in your bathroom when you are showering is a sexual offender,” said Otieno.
Raila Odinga’s lawyers have today responded to questions that had been raised by Supreme Court Judges. (Read Story Here).
The judges have meanwhile asked William Ruto and IEBC lawyers about 30 questions. (See Them Here).
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