15th August, 2022
Deputy President William Ruto has won Kenya’s presidential election, the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) said on Monday, declaring him the new leader of the region’s richest and most stable nation.
The commission’s chairman Wafula Chebukati said Ruto won 7.18 million votes (50.49 percent) against 6.94 million (48.85 percent) for his rival Raila Odinga in the August 9 election.
Ruto’s party UDA (United Democratic Alliance) also controls the senate by winning a majority.
But chaos emerged just before the declaration when the electoral commission’s vice chair and three other commissioners told journalists they could not support the “opaque nature” of the final phase of the process.
“We cannot take ownership of the result that is going to be announced,” vice chair Juliana Cherera said, without giving details.
At the declaration venue, police surged to impose calm amid shouting and scuffles before electoral commission chair Wafula Chebukati announced the official results — and said the two commissioners still there had been injured.
The sudden split in the commission came minutes after Odinga’s chief agent said they could not verify the results and made allegations of “electoral offences” without giving details or evidence. Odinga didn’t come to the venue for the declaration.
Now Kenyans wait to see whether Odinga will again go to court to contest the results of Tuesday’s peaceful election in a country crucial to regional stability.
This is likely the final try for the 77-year-old longtime opposition figure backed this time by former rival and outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, who fell out with his deputy, Ruto, years ago.
“ANY results IEBC Chairman Wafuka Chebukati announces are INVALID because he had no quorum of commissioners to hold a plenary and make such a weighty decision. The ongoing process at Bomas is now ILLEGAL,” Odinga spokesman Makau Mutua tweeted.
Candidates or others have seven days to file any challenge over the election results. The Supreme Court will have 14 days to rule.
The 55-year-old Ruto, despite being sidelined by the president, fought back and told voters that the election was between “hustlers” like him from modest backgrounds and the “dynasties” of Kenyatta and Odinga, whose fathers were Kenya’s first president and vice president.
Odinga has sought the presidency for a quarter-century.
Ruto in his acceptance speech thanked Odinga and emphasized an election that focused on issues and not ethnic divisions, saying that “gratitude goes to millions of Kenyans who refused to be boxed into tribal cocoons.”
He added that people who had acted against his campaign “have nothing to fear … There is no room for vengeance.”
Turnout in this election dropped to 65%, reflecting the weariness of Kenyans seeing the same longtime political figures on the ballot and frustration with poor economic conditions in East Africa’s economic hub.