Africa

Odinga rejects Kenya election result

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 results, Mr Odinga narrowly lost to Deputy President William Ruto.

Mr 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 the successful one in 2017.

Mr Odinga accused the chairman of the electoral body, Wafula Chebukati, of “gross impunity”, saying his team will pursue all legal options.

Minutes before Mr Odinga spoke, four of seven electoral commissioners who refused to approve Monday’s results held a press conference to give their reasons.

They accused Mr Chebukati of side-lining them and of announcing results that were full of “mathematics absurdity and defied logic”.

Juliana Cherera, the Vice-Chairperson of the Commission, said that if you add the percentages as announced by the chairperson of the commission,it summed up to 100.01 per cent.

But some commentators have said that this was down to a simple rounding error.

Kenya’s Deputy President, William Ruto, has defied the odds by winning the fiercely contested presidential election in East Africa’s powerhouse.

His victory was narrow, stunning, and highly controversial as four of the seven members of the Electoral Commission rejected the result amid claims of rigging.

There were chaotic scenes inside the main tallying centre. Scuffles broke out around the podium as the head of the commission, Wafula Chebukati, was seemingly about to announce the results.

Mr Chebukati later returned to declare Mr Ruto the winner with 50.5 per cent of the vote compared to the 48.8 per cent of his main opponent, Raila Odinga, and insisted that the election was free and fair.

The official results showed that Mr Ruto gained grounds in the strongholds of Mr Odinga. He also won by a landslide in Mount Kenya – the political heartland of Mr Odinga’s running-mate, Martha Karua, and the outgoing President, Uhuru Kenyatta. -BBC

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