Supreme Court petitioned to gag Kioni from making claims Ruto lost to Raila
Embattled Jubilee Party Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni.
A civil society group has petitioned the Supreme Court to cite embattled Jubilee Party Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni in contempt over his allegations that Azimio leader Raila Odinga won the 2022 Presidential elections.
The group, Uzalendo Institute for Leadership and Democracy, claims Mr Kioni has been misrepresenting facts and figures of the Apex court judgment on who was validly elected as President in the 2022 General Election.
It claims that Mr Kioni is using charts to push a false narrative in public gatherings.
The group is seeking to have Mr Kioni gagged from making the said false statements, cited, and punished for contempt of the Supreme Court’s Judgment dated September 5, 2022.
The group says Mr Kioni is holding various public gatherings and misrepresenting the outcome of the Presidential election by alleging that President William Ruto did not win the polls.
“Despite the court orders of September 5, 2022 declaring the legitimate Presidential victor in the General Elections, the contemnor has been showing charts in publicised rallies, whose effect is to mislead members of the public as to who won the 2022 Presidential elections,” says the group’s lawyer Dennis Sang in the court papers.
The lawyer wants the application to be certified as urgent and interim gag orders issued pending the hearing of the application.
The lawyer also wants the court to issue interim orders barring Mr Kioni, his agents, servants, or members of his coalition from commenting on the judgment.
“It is essential for the maintenance of the rule of law and order that the authority and the dignity of this court are upheld at all times by holding the contemnor accountable for his actions,” says Mr Sang.
He adds that Mr Kioni’s “utterances and declarations have resulted in publicized public political rallies which threaten the peace of the republic as well as the economic activities of ordinary citizens”.
Additionally, the lawyer wants the court to issue Mr Kioni with a notice to show cause why he should not be committed to civil jail and ordered to pay a sum of monies as a penalty for being in contempt.
Director of the civil society group, Mr Daniel Kamau Chege, in his affidavit, says that the actions of Mr Kioni “are likely to create unruliness and anarchy in the country”.
The application will be mentioned on March 17, 2023.
In the said judgment that Mr Kioni is accused of disobeying, the Apex court dismissed the Presidential Election Petition filed by Azimio leader Raila Odinga and 16 others and declared that the election of Dr Ruto as President was valid.
He got 7,176,141 votes (50.49 percent) against Mr Odinga's 6,942,930 (48.85 percent).
Despite petitioners having made numerous claims pointing to possible irregularities and illegalities, the court found that the alleged illegalities and irregularities were not of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the presidential election.
