Kenyan opposition figure Raila Odinga said on Tuesday that he would pursue “all legal options” to challenge the presidential election results.
Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner a day earlier by the head of the electoral commission. However, four out of seven commissioners had immediately disavowed the results.
“I do not want to fully address our strategies going forward but… we will be pursuing all constitutional and legal options available to us,” Odinga told reporters.
The August 9 vote was mostly peaceful. However, some scuffles were reported on the streets of Nairobi as well as in the halls of the election commission, after some officials refused to verify the result.
According to the official tally, Ruto won 50.5% of the vote, but four election commissioners have said that the chairman’s final count added up to 100.01% and asserted that the excess votes made a “significant difference.”
Odinga slams election results as ‘travesty’
Protests were reported in opposition strongholds, with supporters of Raila Odinga claiming rampant electoral malpractice.
“We are not going to accept and move on until Raila is the president,” one of his supporters told DW.
Odinga himself dismissed the figures declared by electoral commission chief Wafula Chebukati as “null and void” and said his camp does not recognize anyone as a legally declared winner of the election.
“What we saw yesterday was a travesty and blatant disregard of the constitution,” said Odinga.
The 77-year-old has long been an opposition leader in Kenya. Many were shocked earlier this year when outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta said he would support his old rival Odinga instead of his own deputy Ruto.
In turn, a supporter of Odinga’s rival Ruto praised the electoral commission and its work in declaring William Ruto president-elect.
“We hope that you are going to reach and do what that you promised in your manifesto,” the Ruto supporter said in a message to the current deputy president.
Weeks of uncertainty ahead
Now, Kenya faces weeks of legal disputes between election rivals. If the battle ends up before the country’s Supreme Court, the court has an option of ordering a fresh election. Already, religious and other leaders have pleaded for calm in a country with a history of deadly post-election violence.
A second commission, the well-regarded Elections Observation Group, said on Tuesday that its count corroborates the official tally that has Ruto as the winner by a narrow margin.
Ruto claimed victory in the low-turnout election on Monday, saying that “there are no losers. The people of Kenya have won because we raised the political bar.”
es/dj (AP, AFP)
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