William Ruto has been declared the winner of Kenya’s presidential election, defeating his rival Raila Odinga, promising to move the country forward.
Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) headed by Wafula Chebukati announced the final results of the tightly contested presidential election on Monday, in accordance with Kenya’s electoral laws.
The declaration came after the violence at the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi broke out after poll results were delayed for several hours.
“I stand before you despite intimidation and harassment. I have done my duty according to the laws of the land,” Chebukati said during the announcement of the long-awaited outcome of the presidential election. “In accordance with the law, I hereby declare that Ruto William Samoei has been duly elected as the president.”
Shortly before his announcement, four out of seven IEBC commissioners disowned the results. The opposing officials staged a press conference of their own at another venue disputing the official results.
“We cannot take ownership of the result that will be announced,” the IEBC vice-chairman, Juliana Cherera told reporters, describing the process as “opaque” but provided no evidence of irregularities.
Data obtained from the website of Kenya’s IEBC showed that Ruto gained 50.36 per cent of the votes with 7,152,655 votes, narrowly defeating Raila Odinga, a former prime minister, who polled 48.85 per cent of the votes cast, that is, 6,942,708 votes. George Wajackoyah polled only 0.49 per cent—69,884—of the votes, and David Waihiga trailed behind with 0.27 per cent which amounts to 38,936 votes.
Soon after the results were announced, Ruto, a 55-year-old rags-to-riches businessman who had characterised the election as a battle between ordinary “hustlers” and “dynasties” who had ruled Kenya since its independence from Britain in 1963, gave a speech in which he accepted victory, and expressed his gratitude to Kenyan citizens “who refused to be boxed into tribal cocoons.”
“In this election, there are no losers. The people of Kenya have won because we have raised the political bar. The people of Kenya are the biggest winners,” he added.
The president-elect who had described himself as the “hustler-in-chief”, citing his humble beginnings as a chicken seller who fought his way up to the top of Kenyan politics, during the campaign, also pledged to run a transparent government.
“I will run a transparent, open, democratic government and I will work with the opposition to the extent that they provide oversight over my administration,” he said.
The outcome of the 9 April 2022 election was a bitter blow for Odinga, the 77-year-old veteran opposition leader who had the weight of the ruling party behind him after forging a 2018 pact with outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta in a stunning shift of allegiances.
Aljazeera reports that about 65 per cent of Kenya’s 22 million registered voters came out to vote in the election, in which the economy and high cost of living were key issues.
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