Following the announcement of the presidential election results on Monday 15 August 2022, in which William Ruto won, his opponent has stepped in to deny the reliability of the results. William Ruto’s main opponent calls the results invalid.
On Monday 15 August 2022, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya Wafula Chebukati announced the results of the presidential elections held on 9 August. According to the verdict, William Ruto is the winner of the said elections. This result is challenged by the opposition. Indeed, after the announcement of the results on Monday 15 August, the main opposition figure Raila Odinga called the results a “parody”.
Raila Odinga denies any victory for William Ruto.
In the afternoon of Tuesday 16 August, at his headquarters, Raila Odinga, wearing a hat in his party colours, made an announcement denying the victory of his counterpart William Ruto and called the chairman of the electoral commission Wafula Chebukati a dictator. Indeed, Wafula Chebukati announced the results despite the controversies within the electoral commission. The latter, composed of seven members, split with four challengers. They denounce a miscalculation in the vote count. According to them, the total of the announced vote percentages added up to 100.01%, i.e. a surplus of 0.01%, which according to their – erroneous – calculation would correspond to a difference of 140 000 votes. The dissenting commissioners also denounced the absence of the total number of voters in the final results.
“Our position is clear. The results announced by the chairman of the Electoral Commission are null and void. And must be examined by a court of law. We believe that for the moment there is no winner, no elected president. The announcement made by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission is not valid, he acted in defiance of our Constitution and laws. He could have plunged our country into chaos, had our supporters not shown restraint. Such action could have threatened the security of our country. It is not for us to decide whether he committed a crime. We leave that to the authorities concerned. But for the avoidance of doubt, I want to reiterate that we fully and unreservedly reject the results announced yesterday by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission,” Raila Odinga said.
Will Raila Odinga go to the Supreme Court?
Raila Odinga, the unsuccessful presidential candidate has asked his supporters to remain calm and commended them for maintaining peace, and promised to use the legal means at his disposal for an effective challenge of the presidential election results. To this end, he says “We will pursue any legal and constitutional options available. This will be done considering the multiple flaws in the elections ”.
Thierry Hounye(stag)
