Presidential in Kenya: Raila Odinga rejects the victory of William Ruto
Raila Odinga during a press conference in Nairobi on August 16, 2022. AP - Ben Curtis
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Coalition candidate Azimio la Umoja (“Quest for Unity”) claims that the results giving his opponent William Ruto the winner are invalid.
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Presidential candidate Raila Odinga described as a "
parody
" the results announced Monday, May 15 by the chairman of the Kenyan Electoral Commission giving his opponent William Ruto the winner of the presidential election.
"
What we saw yesterday (Monday) was a travesty and blatant disregard for Kenya's constitution
," the 77-year-old former prime minister said from the capital Nairobi in his first address since the results were announced.
“
In our opinion, there is no winner, no legally and validly declared winner, no elected president
,” he said during his speech.
Despite the rejection of the results by four of the seven members of the body he heads, the president of the Electoral Commission, Wafula Chebukati affirms that William Ruto won with 50.49% of the vote.
The majority of the members of the said Electoral Commission - four out of seven commissioners, including Vice-President Juliana Cherera -, who gave their own press conference, affirms for their part that they cannot "
assume responsibility for the results which will be announced
" .
, because of the "
opaque nature of the process
", while calling on Kenyans to "
calm
".
Juliana Cherara -Vice-Chair, IEBC: In the absence of a credible and verifiable explanation, we concluded that the process that went into Form 34C was opaque and incapable of earning our ownership and confidence #KenyasChoice2022 pic.twitter.com/1ZJIbmOwVI
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) August 16, 2022
Shortly before
Raila Odinga
spoke from his seat in Nairobi, these members spoke again to assure that the tally of results had not been presented to the committee and that it was not mathematically correct.
Raila Odinga says he will pursue "
all possible legal options
" to challenge the results.
“
We will pursue all legal and constitutional options available to us.
We will do so in view of the many flaws in the elections
”.
The veteran Kenyan politician also praised his supporters "
for staying calm and keeping the peace
", calling for "
no one to take the law into their own hands
".
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Kenya
William Ruto