President Uhuru Kenyatta has spoken out on the recently-concluded presidential election in Kenya, saying he was “proud of the peaceful and orderly manner of the campaigns and voting which witnessed reduced ethnic tension and focused on issues.”
“The only anxiety witnessed has been that of anticipation but not of fear,” President Kenyatta added.
Kenyatta was meeting election observers at State House Nairobi on Saturday.
His remarks come against increased public frustration over delay in announcing the official results of the election exercise.
Daily Nation yesterday reported commotion at Bomas of Kenya auditorium as police blocked Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s chief agent Saitabao Ole Kanchory from accessing the result verification form area.
It was not immediately clear whether the police officers in question identified Mr Kanchory before they blocked him.
Following the commotion, anti-riot police were deployed to the tallying centre.
Chaotic scenes at the Bomas of Kenya as Raila Odinga’s Chief Agent Saitabao Ole Kanchory alleges ‘Bomas is a scene of crime’#KenyaDecides2022 #KenyasChoice2022 #KenyaElections2022 pic.twitter.com/obye37z9mo
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) August 13, 2022
An IEBC official was also assaulted at the tallying centre, scenes that have discomforted Kenyans. IEBC yesterday kicked out ‘idlers’ from the tallying centre and pledged to expedite the process.
Kenyatta yesterday said his focus was on the “completion of the electoral process, maintaining peace and security as well as the transition to the new leadership.”
Vote tallying is underway in Nairobi where Deputy President William Ruto is leading the race against Raila Odinga.
As at 07:0am Sunday, Ruto was leading with 3.6 million votes (51.27% against Odinga’s 3.4 million votes (48.07%) out of the 7.1 million total votes tallied by the electoral commission.
IEBC’s results are from 141 of 291 constituencies.
The winner of presidential elections needs 50% + 1 of the valid votes cast and at least 25% votes in more than 24 counties.
The law requires the electoral body to undertake verification of the presidential election results and declare the president-elect within the seven days. The deadline for this process is next Tuesday.
“We shall endeavor to conclude this exercise at the earliest possible,” said IEBC.
Observers speak out
The team led by former Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma said the electoral process has been relatively transparent and all the observers have issued positive reports.
In their brief to President Kenyatta, the team, which included former Presidents Domitien Ndayizeye (Burundi) and Mulatu Teshome (Ethiopia) as well as Ambassador Marie-Pierre Lloyd of Seychelles, noted that the election system and institutions worked within the law and international best practice.
The election observers emphasized that they have learnt a lot from the elections in Kenya and will share the good example of real democracy, institutional credibility and upholding the rule of law to build the “Africa we want”.
They cited the deployment of technology as well as the respect of the Constitution and institutions during the electoral process as some of the examples of good practices that should be emulated.
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