AfricaNewsKenya’s Supreme Court Upholds William Ruto’s Presidential Victory

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The Kenya Supreme Court has upheld the presidential election result that deputy president William Ruto won as the President-elect.

Recall that Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) headed by Wafula Chebukati had declared Ruto the winner of the 9 April 2022 election.

Official results showed that Ruto gained 50.36 per cent of the votes with 7,152,655 votes, narrowly defeating his rival, Raila Odinga, a former prime minister, who polled 48.85 per cent of the votes cast, that is, 6,942,708 votes.

Displeased with the outcome of the election, Odinga filed a lawsuit in Kenyan Supreme Court, challenging the result.

In the petition, he asked the court to nullify the results of the polls on several grounds, including a mismatch between the turnout figures and the result, and failure by the IEBC to tally ballots from 27 constituencies as required by law.

“The final result…was therefore not complete, accurate, verifiable or accountable and cannot be the basis for a valid and legitimate declaration,” the petition read partly.

Delivering judgment on Monday, Kenyan Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court, Martha Koome, maintained that Ruto emerged victorious at last month’s presidential election, dismissing the allegations brought before it by Odinga.

In her ruling, Koome said, “This is a unanimous decision of the court and we make the following orders.

“The presidential election petition number E005 of 2022 as consolidated with the presidential election petition numbers E0,0,1,2,3,4,7 and 8 of 2022 are hereby dismissed.

“As a consequence, we declare the election result of the first respondent as president-elect to be valid.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling cannot be appealed.

Ruto will be sworn in as the fifth president of Kenya on 13 September 2022.

By Ezinwanne Onwuka (Senior Reporter)

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