William Ruto wins Kenya election, beating Raila Odinga
William Ruto has been declared the winner of Kenya’s presidential election, defeating his rival Raila Odinga, promising to work with “all leaders” in the country.
The declaration came after violence at the National Tallying Centre broke out after poll results were delayed for several hours.
About 65 percent 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. The number was lower than expected amid widespread youth disenchantment. In 2017, about 78 percent of the electorate cast ballots.
Odinga ‘likely’ to challenge result: Analyst
Ngala Chome of Sahan research believes it is “quite likely” that losing candidate Odinga is preparing to go to the supreme court to challenge the election result.
“We saw that a few minutes before the results were announced his party agent had refused to sign the required forms,” he told Al Jazeera. Moreover, Chome said unlike prior elections, incidents of violence will not be as widespread.
“I took a stroll of Kibera slums [Oding stronghold], which is known in previous elections as one of the hotspots of election violence but also for sort of a base support base for Raila Odinga. The situation as far as I can tell did not seam as tense. Of course anything can change, especially depending on what Odinga does next,” he added.
“But I’m still confident that the levels of violence we’ve seen in previous elections, especially in 2007, will not be repeated this time around.”
Drama, disappointment in Nairobi as Ruto wins Kenyan election
On the eve of the August 9 elections, Joyce Achieng stood for hours outside the town hall centre at Kamukunji in the heart of Kibera, in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The 41-year-old mother of 10 went home only to cook for her children in the morning before returning the next evening and repeating the cycle until Monday, she said.
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She was ready to spend another week celebrating if former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, her candidate for president and a massive favourite in Kibera, won, she told Al Jazeera on Monday afternoon.
Odinga supporters angry, frustrated: AJ correspondent
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Haru Mutasa reporting from opposition figure Odinga’s stronghold Kisumu has said his supporters are protesting in the streets, angry and frustrated at his loss in the presidential elections.
“Disbelief turned into anger. People here were expecting him (Odinga) to win but when he didn’t they turned angry,” she added.
“They were saying things like people at the National Tally Centre in Nairobi are thieves. They are Odinga not to except the result.”
Ruto supporters in Nairobi celebrate result
Supporters of Deputy President William Ruto celebrated in the streets on Monday after Kenya’s electoral commission chairman declared him the winner of the close presidential election over five-time contender, Raila Odinga.
Nicholas Kemei, a Ruto supporter, told AP news agency he was supporting the president-elect because “he understands our country at large”.
“He knows what we want. He knows that those people who are down need to promote themselves to come up and that is why he promoted the bottom-up economy and that is why we are so happy today because we voted for him and he is a very sober-minded guy. So we are positive that this guy will steer this country to another level,” he added.
INFOGRAPHIC: Kenya 2022 election results by the numbers
William Ruto has won the race to be the fifth president of Kenya, according to results announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Ruto received 7,176,141 (50.49 percent) of the votes, narrowly beating his rival, Raila Odinga, who managed 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent).
Source: Aljazeera
