Kenya election 2022: Raila Odinga rejects William Ruto’s victory
Raila Odinga has rejected the results of Kenya’s presidential election saying that the figures announced on Monday were “null and void”.
According to the official results, Odinga narrowly lost to Deputy President William Ruto.
Odinga accused the head of the electoral body of a “blatant disregard of the constitution”.
“We totally without reservation reject the presidential election results,” he said.
Making his remarks in front of supporters in the capital, Nairobi, he said that there was “neither a legally elected winner nor a president-elect”.
The 77-year-old long-time opposition leader was running for president for the fifth time. He has challenged the results in the previous two elections, including successfully in 2017.
This time round, the chairman of the electoral body Wafula Chebukati said he got 48.8% of the vote in last Tuesday’s election compared to Ruto’s 50.5%.
Odinga accused Chebukati of “gross impunity” saying his team will pursue all legal options. He called his declaration “a major setback” to Kenya’s democracy that could trigger a political crisis.
He said that Chebukati went against the law by announcing the result without the backing of his fellow commissioners. But an ally of Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi, said Focus on Africa radio that commissioners are required to collate the results but do not determine the result.
This is a legal point that may in the end have to be tested in court.
Minutes before Odinga spoke, four of seven electoral commissioners who refused to approve Monday’s results, held a press conference to give their reasons.
They accused Chebukati of side-lining them and of announcing results that were a “mathematical absurdity that defies logic”.
Juliana Cherera, the vice-chairperson of the commission, said that if you added the percentages as announced by the chairperson of the commission the sum came to 100.01%.
Agencies