Nairobi 17 August : Raila Odinga, Kenya’s veteran opposition leader has resisted the outcome of the presidential election, which declared his principal rival, the sitting Vice President William Ruto as the winner and promised to contest the results in the court.The 77-year-old Odinga who was running for president in the fifth time as part of the Azimio La Umoja (Resolution for Unity)-One Kenya Coalition declared that he did not have confidence in the results of the highly contested elections as reported by Xinhua news agency.
At a briefing in the city on Tuesday he stated that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) violated the constitution and did not follow the principle of the consensus of its decision to declare Ruto as the winner .
Particularly, Odinga faulted IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati over his unilateral decisions about the announcement of the presidential winner.
He added that Chebukati as well as a small number of commissioners violated electoral laws and set out the procedures for declaring Ruto the fiveth president-elect.
“In our opinion there isn’t legally validly declared winner or President-Elect” Odinga said.
Odinga, declaring that his political group will pursue legal and constitutional means to ensure that the results of the presidential election are not overturned.
The announcement of the 55-year-old Ruto as the winner of Kenya’s presidential election after he racked up 7.17 million votes or 50.49 percent of legitimate votes was a rousing success in Ruto’s strongholds, but caused anger among Odinga’s supporters in the western region of Kenya as well as Nairobi.
In his winning speech Monday night, Ruto had pledged to extend the hand of solidarity to his political adversaries, unify the nation and promote shared prosperity and growth.
Protests were sporadic at night on Monday in the western part of the city of Kisumu Nairobi’s informal settlements of Kibera and Mathare which are considered Odinga strongholds.
However, relative peace has been restored, according to local media reports.
Odinga was second to Ruto in the presidential election which attracted four candidates receiving around 6.94 million, or 48.85 percent of votes, as per IEBC count.
Four out of seven commissioners of the electoral agency who earlier questioned the presidential results insisted the process was slowed by a lack of transparency.
They claimed to journalists that the numbers were not accurate and an inaccurate representation of the official total.
The commissioners claimed that the aggregation of presidential outcomes for four presidential candidates was overinflated by a number they claimed could influence results of the election.
They also noted that the chairman of the electoral body was unable to provide the entire amount of registered voters or or the total amount of votes cast, or the number of refused to do so in the violation of the law.
As per the commissioners the Chairman was in violation of law on elections when he declared the results after verification and counting in certain constituencies had not been completed.
