NAIROBI —
Kenyans were on Tuesday braced for
a potential period of uncertainty after William Ruto was proclaimed winner of
the hard-fought presidential election but his opponents cried foul.
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All eyes were on defeated rival
Raila Odinga, who
failed at his fifth stab at the presidency but has yet to make any public
comments about the outcome of the August 9 election.
After an anxious days-long wait for results, the
55-year-old Ruto was declared president-elect on Monday with a narrow victory
over Odinga, the veteran opposition leader who had stood with the backing of
the ruling party following a stunning shift in political allegiances.
The aftermath of the largely peaceful vote will be
keenly watched as a test of democratic maturity in the East African powerhouse
where previous elections have been marred by claims of rigging and bloodshed.
“Ruto it is!” trumpeted the front page headline in
People Daily, while The Standard declared “Ruto the 5th”, as he will become
Kenya’s fifth president since independence from colonial power Britain in 1963.
The results announcement did little to calm nerves,
with the election commission that supervised the vote itself split over the
outcome and demonstrators in Odinga’s strongholds hurling stones and setting
fire to tires.
On the campaign trail, both Odinga and Ruto had
pledged to deal with any disputes in court rather than on the streets.
‘No room for vengeance’
“I will work with all leaders in Kenya so that we can fashion a country
that leaves nobody behind,” Ruto said in his victory speech, pledging to run a
“transparent, democratic, open government” for all Kenyans.
“There is no room for vengeance,” said Ruto, who had
run as the effective challenger after falling out with his boss, the outgoing
President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“I am acutely aware that our country is at a stage
where we need all hands on deck to move it forward.”
He said the election had been fought on issues as
much as “ethnic configurations” in a country where tribal affiliations have
been a feature of every vote and led to vicious bloodletting after the disputed
2007 poll.
The rags-to-riches businessman had painted the vote
as a battle between ordinary “hustlers” and the Kenyatta and Odinga “dynasties”
that have dominated Kenyan politics since independence.
But his conciliatory message did not stop supporters
of 77-year-old Odinga — known as “Baba” (“father” in Swahili) — from packing
the streets in his lakeside stronghold of Kisumu, where they clashed with
police who fired tear gas to disperse them.
Protests also erupted in two Nairobi slums that have
long been Odinga bastions.
The situation on Tuesday appeared to be calm, with
some police on patrol as people headed to work, although the streets of the
capital Nairobi were emptier than usual.
‘Opaque’ process
No presidential poll outcome
has gone uncontested in Kenya since 2002, and a supreme court challenge by
Odinga is seen as almost certain, with his running mate Martha Karua saying on
Twitter: “It is not over till it is over.”
The race remained unpredictable to the end, with
Ruto scoring 50.49 percent of the vote compared to 48.85 percent for Odinga,
according to Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman
Wafula Chebukati.
But in an extraordinary move shortly before the
announcement, four of the IEBC’s seven commissioners said they disowned the
results, with one describing the process as “opaque” but giving no details.
The IEBC was under intense pressure to produce a clean
and transparent vote after it faced stinging criticism over its handling of
Kenya’s annulled 2017 election.
Chebukati, who was also IEBC boss in 2017, insisted
he had carried out his duties according to the law of the land despite facing
“intimidation and harassment”.
Any challenge must be made within seven days to the
supreme court, which then has 14 days to issue a ruling. If it orders an
annulment, a new vote must be held within 60 days.
“A second election would be even more polarized,
dragging out business uncertainty while the economy struggles,” Ben Hunter,
Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft risk intelligence group, said in a
note.
If there is no court petition, Ruto will take the
oath of office in two weeks’ time.
He will inherit a country already struggling with
soaring prices, a crippling drought that has left millions hungry, endemic
corruption and disenchantment with the political elite.
While a host of
African leaders congratulated Ruto, the US embassy instead issued plaudits to
Kenya’s voters, while urging political rivals to settle their differences
peacefully.
In August 2017, the supreme court annulled the
election after Odinga rejected the results. Dozens of people were killed by
police in ensuing protests.
The worst electoral violence in Kenya’s history
occurred after a disputed vote in 2007, when more than 1,100 people were killed
in bloodletting between rival tribes.
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