16th August, 2022
Raila Odinga has rejected the results of last Tuesday’s Kenya’s presidential election which was declared in favour of William Ruto.
He declared the election as null and void and a democratic setback for the nation.
According to Odinga, “In our view, there is neither a legally and validly declared winner nor a president-elect.”
He said the results announced by the electoral commission chairman on Monday was null and void.
Odinga also said that in 2017, the Supreme Court of Kenya nullified the presidential election because of what he called “the misconduct” of the national election commission.
The court did overturn the August 2017 vote, in which Odinga lost to the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, after he challenged the result, claiming the voting process had been “tampered with”.
The Supreme Court ruled the election commission had “failed, neglected, or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution”.
International observers, including the EU, the Carter Centre and Commonwealth observers, had described the vote as largely free and fair, according to the BBC.
Odinga then boycotted a re-run of the vote in October, saying the election commission had failed to ensure that mistakes he said were made in the August election would not be repeated.
The Supreme Court then dismissed some legal challenges to the election re-run, confirming Kenyatta as president.