President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of Kenya’s repeat election on October 30th, with over 98.26% (7.4 million) votes out of the 19.6 million registered voters.
The president elect got 7,483,895 votes out of the 7,616,217 valid votes cast amdist violence in opposition strongholds and low voter turnout.
Kenyatta, in his victory speech boasted of his August victory and recast the Supreme Court’s nullification as an endorsement of his win.
“The numbers were never questioned. What the court questioned was the process of declaring my victory,” said Kenyatta.
His victory comes at a time when Raila Odinga, his strongest competitor in the Presidential race withdrew his candidature on October 10th, on grounds that his party demands for reforms in Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), were not met.
“I don’t have to always be on the ballot, but I want my candidate or whoever will be on the ballot to participate in a free and fair contest. There is no need of going to an election whose outcome is already predetermined,” said Raila.
Raila, who had asked his supporters to boycott the re-election even when his name appeared on the ballot, collected over 73,228 votes, compared to the seven million he got in August.
NASA that has been pushing for the second re-election in 90 days disagreed with Kenyatta’s victory and threatened to swear in their candidate Raila Odinga as the president-elect.
Deputy President William Ruto has said no such thing will happen.
Jubilee party asserts that 90% of the country voted and blames NASA for depriving people of their rights to vote when it asked supporters to stay away on election day.
Counties including Homa Bay, Siaya, Migori, and Kisumu where opposition supporters barred IEBC officials from delivering voting material and engaged police in running battles did not vote.
Wafula Chebukati the IEBC Chairperson, before announcing the results, said, “the commission ensured that everything required of us by law was put in place for the conduct of the election,” contrary to claims by the opposition coalition that the poll was a sham.
Chebukati added that the country is in a difficult political situation and that the electoral commission took reform measures this time round including, but not limited to, increasing of KIEMS kits gadgets and installation of both Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom cards for proper network coverage and extensive training of poll officials including practicals on how to use printers and satellite communication technology.
“I can confidently say that on 26th of October, we did everything to ensure every Kenyan was able to practice his/her right. We discharged our mandate, unfortunately not all Kenyans exercised their rights but I respect their choice,” said Chebukati.
Other candidates in the race included Third Way Alliance’s Ekuru Aukot, 21,333 (0.28%), Alliance for Real Change’s Mohamed Dida, 14,127 (0.19%), United Democratic Party’s Shakhalaga Khwa Jirongo, 3,832 (0.05%) and independent candidates Joseph Nyaga 5,554 (0.07%), Japheth Kaluyu 8,261 (0.11%) and Michael Wainaina 6,007 (0.01%).
When asked if he will work with the opposition after elections, Kenyatta said, “Those who want to ask me, ‘Are you going to engage in dialogue with so and so and so and so?’, let them first and foremost exhaust the constitutionally laid out processes. I am not going to jump the gun.”
The Kenya Supreme Court on September 1, annulled President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win at the August 8 polls and called for a re-run after 60 days. This followed Raila’s petition to the court over irregularities in the previous poll.
