The Kenyan Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati yesterday declared William Ruto winner in the August 9 heavily contested presidential election.

Ruto, 55, who served as Deputy President under out-going President Uhuru Kenyatta, won the election after amassing 7.1 million votes or 50.49 percent of the votes cast.

Veteran Kenyan opposition politician and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, 77, came second, with 6.4 million votes, representing 48.85 percent.

Ruto: The election was about real issues

George Wajackoyah and David Mwaure came a distant third and fourth, respectively after they got a combined total of less than one percent of the total votes cast.

The announcement of the results was delayed for about an hour after Odinga’s campaign team alleged that some electoral officials tampered with the results to favour Ruto while four IEBC commissioners refused to endorse the outcome.

Kenyan newspaper The Daily Nation quoted IEBC deputy chairperson Juliana Cherera as having said that she and three other commissioners could not endorse the results of the election because of the “opaque nature of this last phase of the general election”.

However, speaking after his victory, President-elect Ruto sounded upbeat and hailed the people of Kenya for rising above ethnic rivalries that characterised previous elections to deliver a peaceful and issue-based election campaign.

In a statement monitored on CGTN, he said: “We have raised the bar. This election was more about the issues than the ethnic boundaries that have bound our country.

“The people have set the bar for aspiring political leaders not to sell their ethnic backgrounds, but to sell viable manifestos to the people.”
Ruto pledged to work with all elected leaders, including opposition politicians and the civil society, to deliver the aspirations of the Kenyan people, adding that he would run a transparent and open administration.

Under Kenyan electoral law, a presidential candidate has to win more than 50 percent of the total votes cast.
Kenyans went to the polls on August 9 to elect the President, National Assembly and County representatives.

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