Kenya presidential vote loser files Supreme Court challenge

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s losing presidential candidate Raila Odinga has filed a Supreme Court challenge to last week’s election result, asserting that the process was marked by criminal subversion and seeking that the outcome be nullified and a new vote be ordered.

Odinga arrived to cheers Monday and helped to hoist boxes of material for the petition into place, starting the 14-day period in which the court must rule. At least one other petition was filed by human rights figures.

Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner of the close Aug. 9 election with almost 50.5% of votes. The peaceful election turned chaotic in the final minutes before the declaration when the electoral commission split and a majority of commissioners said they couldn’t support the result.

The dissenting commissioners and the chairman have traded accusations of misconduct, extending the uncertainty in East Africa’s most stable democracy. Until then, the election had been seen as the country's most transparent, with the commission posting more than 46,000 results forms online from polling stations for anyone to do the math themselves.

The petition filed by Odinga's team, seen by The Associated Press, names the electoral commission, its members and Ruto himself. It asserts “premeditated unlawful and criminal subversion of the integrity and constitutionality of the electoral process in order to assist and secure a fraudulent result.”

The petition singles out commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, who declared Ruto the winner, asserting that he “set out to subvert the sovereign will of the people of Kenya and overthrow the constitutional order.”

The petition also alleges manipulation of some results forms and computer data and asserts that the actions made the difference in the close...