Kenya’s Deputy President, William Ruto, has been announced as the country’s President-elect after the General Elections which were held on August 9th 2022.
The country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman, Wafula Chebukati, declared Dr Ruto, representing the Kenya Kwanza political formation, as the President-elect, announcing that the DP had garnered 7,176,141 votes which represented 50.49 per cent of the total votes in the polls.
Dr Ruto beat his closest challenger and main rival in the polls, former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, of the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Alliance, who garnered 6,942,930 votes, according to IEBC’s final tallies. This figure represented 48.85 per cent of the total votes cast.
Mr Chebukati’s announcement came after a lengthy tallying process that was time and again marked with interruptions from adherents of the two leading contenders with accusations and counter-accusations of electoral malpractices.
In his inaugural speech after the announcement, DP Ruto declared his intent to embark on working to make Kenya a prosperous country. “I’m aware that our country is at the stage where we need all hands on deck. We do not have the luxury to look back. We do not have the luxury to point our fingers. We have to work together for a prosperous Kenya,” he said.
He was accompanied by his running-mate, Rigathi Gachagua, and their spouses as well as their party’s adherents.
We do not have the luxury to point fingers, we have to work together for a prosperous Kenya
On the other hand, supporters of Mr Odinga – who did not attend the IEBC announcement – claimed that the elections’ tallying process was not transparent and hence the announced results were not valid.
Earlier before Mr Chebukati’s announcement, IEBC’s vice-chairperson and three other commissioners held a separate press briefing where they dissociated themselves from the results that their Chair, Mr Chebukati intended to announce.
They indicated that they will not take ownership of the results that will be announced by their chair due to what they termed as ‘opaqueness’ in the tallying process during its latter stages.
The four; IEBC vice-chair Juliana Cherera, and commissioners Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit and Justus Nyang’aya, alleged that the results were arrived at in an opaque manner. They did not give more details thereof and pledged to give the reasons for their dissent in due course.
The IEBC chair’s announcement of DP Ruto as the President-elect elicited mixed reactions across the different divides that had fronted the two leading contenders in the elections.
While jubilations marked DP Ruto’s perceived stronghold regions, a sombre mood engulfed the regions that strongly favoured former Prime Minister, Odinga’s Presidency.
The other two candidates in the Presidential polls were David Mwaure of Agano Party and George Wajackoyah of the Roots Party who got 31,987 votes representing 0.23 per cent and 61,969 votes (0.44 per cent) respectively.
