The Kenyan Electoral Commission declares Ruto the winner of the presidential elections

More than half of the electoral commission does not subscribe to the results given by officials

15 (EUROPE PRESS)

The Kenyan vice president, William Ruto, has won the Kenyan elections with 7,176,141 votes (50.4 percent), according to data announced by the electoral commission of the African country. However, four of the seven commission members have rejected these results.

Ruto is thus imposed by a narrow margin on Raila Odinga, who has achieved 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent), as reported by the president of the Independent Electoral and Border Commission (IEBC), Wafula Chebukati, at a press conference broadcast on social networks.

“I am here despite intimidation and harassment. I took an oath to serve this country and have done my duty under the Constitution and other laws,” Chebukati stressed in his speech.

Shortly before the announcement, four of the seven commissioners that make up the IEBC have announced that they disregard the results that Chebukati would present. Among them is the vice president Juliana Cherera, as well as the commissioners Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit and Justus Nyang’aya, who consider that these results are the result of an “opaque” process.

“We are not going to Bomas -where the press conference was held- because we cannot subscribe to the results that are going to be announced,” Cherera explained, according to the Nigerian newspaper ‘The Nation’ in its digital edition.

ROUTE REACTION

After knowing these results, Ruto has made an appeal to avoid “revenge” against his rivals in reference to the bitter history of electoral violence in the country.

“Revenge has no place (…). We look to the future. We must close ranks and collaborate for a democratic Kenya,” said the elected leader, who also congratulated the IEBC for “raising the bar.” “I just want to fearlessly say that Wafula Chebukati is our hero,” he said.

“I am going to work with all the elected officials so that we can improve the country and that no one is left behind,” added Ruto, who has also promised collaboration with the opposition.

The announcement of the final result of the elections has been delayed several times due to accusations of electoral fraud raised by the Odinga campaign.

More than a thousand people died after the 2007 elections and another hundred in 2017, during the re-election of the outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Odinga, chosen by Kenyatta for succession, had been leading the polls for days before the elections were held.

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