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Tag: William Ruto

  • No evidence of election fraud in Kenya, say Ruto’s lawyers

    The proceedings for the presidential petition were ended by Kenya’s Supreme Court on Thursday.

    Lawyers representing the electoral commission and President-elect William Ruto challenged the petition by presidential candidate Raila Odinga and six others seeking to overturn the result of the 9 August election.

    The legal teams urged the court to dismiss pleas made by Mr Odinga and others saying they lacked merit because they had not tabled evidence to support their claims.

    They challenged the petitioners to provide proof to demonstrate that the results transmission system was compromised.

    The court was told that the allegations made about the dispute between the commissioners and the chairperson were merely sensational and do not warrant a nullification of the election outcome.

    They accused petitioners of engineering a constitutional crisis to achieve their political objectives.

    Lawyers will respond to questions and clarifications sought by the seven-judge bench on Friday.

    The judges will then write the judgment over the weekend and deliver the ruling on Monday.

  • ‘From chicken seller to president’: How Belgian newspaper reported win of Kenya’s Ruto

    William Ruto emerged as President elect for the Kenyan Republic after going to the polls recently.

    The Belgian newspaper decided to announced him by associating him with a trade that used to earn him a living.

    A twitter post was shared with the caption, ‘From chicken seller to president,’ the headline of the paper screamed.

    This has triggered light reaction on Kenya’s social media space with most people wondering how Ruto’s chicken business of years ago ‘trumped’ his immediate role of deputy president or a leading maize farmer.

    Ruto has often spoken about his poor background, tending his father’s cattle as a boy and selling chicken at a point in his youth.

    After vigorously pursuing his studies, he joined student politics and later frontline national politics.

    He has served as a Minister of Agric and in the last decade as deputy president to outgoing Uhuru Kenyatta.

    Ruto was on August 15 elected fifth president of Kenya with 50.49% of the valid votes from the August 9 election, the International Electoral and Boundaries Commission, IEBC announced.

    He won his first run for the top job, beating former prime minister Raila Odinga who ran for the fifth time. Odinga got 48.5% of the vote.

     

     

  • Kenya 2022 elections: ‘I look forward to working with you’ – Akufo-Addo to William Ruto

    President Akufo-Addo has congratulated His Excellency William Ruto, for emerging winner in the 2022 Presidential elections in Kenya.

    Whilst congratulating President-elect Ruto on his victory, as well as the Kenyan people for “their fortitude and maturity”, President Akufo-Addo expressed his delight at the peaceful atmosphere in which the elections were held.

    “I am delighted that your long years of meritorious service as a stalwart politician in Kenya will be useful to you, as you take on the onerous responsibilities that come with your new office”, the President told his Kenyan counterpart.

    He noted that the success of the 2022 election is yet another milestone in the pursuit of “our common aspiration” for democratic governance, rule of law and the inclusive participation of Ghanaians and Kenyans in the governance process of the two countries on the continent.

    “I look forward to working with you to champion the cause of our continent, and to strengthen further the historical bonds of friendship and co-operation that happily exist between our two countries and peoples,” President Akufo-Addo added.

    At the time of filing this report, the following leaders have sent congratulatory messages.

    * Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian Prime Minister

    * Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somali President

    * Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwean President

    * Evariste Ndayishimiye, Burundian President

    * Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian President

    * Yoweri Museveni, Ugandan President

    * Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzanian President

    * Cyril Ramaphosa, South African president

    * Lazarus Chakwera, Malawian President

    * Umaru Sisocco Embalo, Guinea-Bissau president

    * Paul Kagame, Rwandan President

     

    Source: Ghanaweb

  • Kenya polls: William Ruto wins presidential race

    In the midst of emotional moments, the chairman of the electoral commission has announced that Deputy President William Ruto has won Kenya’s presidential election.

    With 50.4% of the vote, he barely defeated Raila Odinga as his opponent.

    The announcement was delayed amid scuffles and allegations of vote-rigging by Mr. Odinga‘s campaign.

    Due to disputes and claims of vote manipulation by Mr. Odinga’s team, the declaration was postponed.

    Four of the seven members of the electoral commission refused to endorse the announcement, saying the results were “opaque”.

    “We cannot take ownership of the result that is going to be announced because of the opaque nature of this last phase of the general election,” said Juliana Cherera, the vice-chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

    “We are going to give a comprehensive statement… and again we urge Kenyans to keep calm. There is an open door that people can go to court and the rule of law will prevail,” she said.

    Mr. Odinga’s party agent earlier alleged that there were “irregularities” and “mismanagement” in the election.

    This was the first time Mr. Ruto, 55, had run for president. He has served as deputy president for 10 years but fell out with President Uhuru Kenyatta, who backed Mr. Odinga to succeed him.

     

  • Kenya election results: a tense battle between Raila Odinga and William Ruto

    There is growing hope that the much-anticipated outcomes of last week’s presidential election in Kenya will be made public soon.

    The national tallying center is getting ready for the declaration as the desks utilized for the result verification procedure have been cleaned.

    According to the most recent results, Deputy President William Ruto has a slim advantage against former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

    The findings must be made public by 16 August in accordance with the Kenyan constitution.

    On Sunday, both Mr. Odinga and Mr. Ruto urged anxious Kenyans to be patient as they wait for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to determine which of them would be the country’s fifth president.

    There have also been calls for peace from several leaders and bodies including the Catholic church which asked for “patience and civility” and urged the main candidates to show “restraint and statesmanship”.

    Mr Ruto leads the official tally at 51% against Mr. Odinga’s 48%, according to local media. Verified results from 39 of the 290 constituencies are yet to be declared.

    Media organizations have also been releasing provisional tallies using official data from the 46,000 polling stations. They also show a tight race. About 14 million votes were cast – a turnout of 65%.

  • Kenya elections 2022: Raila Odinga and William Ruto in tight presidential race

    With almost half of the results from Kenya’s presidential election now confirmed, the two main candidates are running neck and neck.

    Deputy President William Ruto has taken a slight lead over ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga – 51% against 48%.

    The head of the electoral commission has admitted that announcing the result of Tuesday’s election is too slow.

    The verification of results has been stopped several times after complaints by supporters of the main candidates.

    On Saturday night, Mr Odinga’s supporters entered a restricted area and accosted electoral officials, accusing them of tampering with the vote.

    Amid the melee, Mr Odinga’s chief campaign manager was able to get to the lectern used by top electoral commission officials, where he criticised the result verification process.

    “I want to announce to the nation that Bomas of Kenya is a scene of crime,” said Saitabao Ole Kanchory, before the microphone was switched off and he was led away. Bomas is the name of the cultural centre in the capital, Nairobi, which is being used as the main tallying centre.

    Mr Ruto’s supporters accused their opponents of interfering with the tallying process.

    Riot police have been deployed inside the building to reinforce security.

    There have been calls for peace from several leaders and bodies including the Catholic church which asked for “patience and civility” and urged the main candidates to show “restraint and statesmanship” as anxiety grows.

    “I want to become an instrument to bring peace, to heal, unite and keep the hope alive in our country,” Mr Odinga said on Sunday morning at a church service in Nairobi, his first public remarks since election day.

    The results of 141 of the 292 constituencies have now been confirmed, according to a BBC tally of official announcements.

    Media organisations have been releasing provisional tallies using official data from the 46,000 polling stations. They also show a tight race between the two candidates.

    About 14 million votes were cast – a turnout of 65%.

    The electoral commission has until Tuesday 16 August to declare the winner.

    “We have to make adjustments” to quicken the process of verifying results, the head of the electoral body Wafula Chebukati said in his latest briefing on Saturday.

    “It’s taking three to four hours” to process the result from a single constituency, he said. “Some of our returning officers have stayed here for three days sitting on chairs, which is totally unacceptable.”

    Source: BBC

  • Kenya elections: Long wait for Raila Odinga and William Ruto in poll count

    Kenya’s vote counting system has not been hacked amid a tense wait for results of Tuesday’s presidential election, a top poll official has said.

    “Nothing like that has happened. It is misinformation,” said the electoral commission’s CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan.

    Social media has been awash with allegations that fake results have been uploaded as the count is verified.

    Media tallies show the two leading candidates – Raila Odinga and William Ruto – are neck and neck.

    But it is only the electoral commission that can declare the winner – and it has seven days to do so.

    “We anticipated that people would try to hack our systems… we assure the whole country that our systems are actually secure,” Mr Marjan told reporters on Friday afternoon.

    Earlier electoral head Wafula Chebukati emphasised there was no need to panic when seeing differences in tallying numbers from various media groups as they would look similar in the end: “The results are from the same public portal; the approach [of each broadcaster] is different.”

    Kenya presidential results 2022

    In order to win in the first round, a candidate must get 50% plus one of the cast vote and at least 25% of the votes in 24 out of 47 counties.

    LIVE RESULTS

    Last updated: 08/12/2022, 14:04:14 local time (GMT+3)

    Provisional results from IEBC

    Candidates Vote

    William Ruto
    52.9%
    5,350,472

    Raila Odinga
    46.4%
    4,696,298
     

    Other Candidates
    0.6%
    66,835

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    What is happening at the main tallying centre?

    Based at a cultural centre called Bomas in the capital, Nairobi, officials from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) are busy verifying results.

    On Friday, Mr Chebukati admitted he felt the process was taking too long, blaming party agents.

    His officials are comparing photographs of result forms from more than 46,000 polling stations nationwide to physical forms being brought to centre by officials from each of the 290 constituencies.

    This is to ensure that the results match.

    This is witnessed by party agents from the main parties, who Mr Chebukati says keep stalling by turning a straightforward exercise into a “forensic” one.

    He said officials should not take more than 15 minutes to verify a result.

    Counting in some polling stations was also delayed and travel to Nairobi, especially by officials from far-flung areas, could be a further factor in slowing things down

    Verification was also halted for a time on Friday after a scuffle broke out, allegedly involving someone without accreditation seen with a laptop – but the IEBC said it turned out not to be suspicious.

    How are the media tallies compiled?

    Teams of journalists working for various outlets have been engaged in the laborious task of uploading the figures received from each of the polling stations one-by-one.

    Each media house is doing it a different speed and choosing the polling stations in a different order.

    By Friday morning, local media had slowed down their count – though the reason is not clear, some saying staff were exhausted.

    Mr Chebukati said he had hoped media groups would have clubbed together to tally the results, but they had decided to each go it alone.

    How are Kenyans feeling?

    There is a sense of anxiety in the country as disputed elections in the past have led to violence or the whole process being cancelled.

    Following the 2007 vote, at least 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 fled their homes following claims of a stolen election.

    In 2017, huge logistical errors led the Supreme Court to annul the result and order the presidential poll to be re-run.

    Officials are under pressure to get things right this time.

    The country often grinds to a halt during elections, activities across the country have slowed and schools remain closed at least until next week on Monday. In Nairobi’s central business district, the usually busy streets are mostly deserted.

    Allegations of election rigging are as old as the country. It was part of politics even before multiparty elections were re-introduced in the 1990s, but the push for free and fair elections has never faltered.

    After the violence that followed the 2007 election, political parties and activists argued for the use of technology instead of physical registers, which could be easily manipulated, to verify voters.

    This year’s election is the third time technology has been used but it has yet to deliver an election that has not been challenged in the courts.

    Meanwhile, a group of top civil servants told reporters on Friday that preparations for a smooth handover of power would get under way as soon as the electoral commission announced the president-elect.

    When will we know the result?

    It’s unclear when the final results will be known, but the electoral commission has started announcing verified counts from the 290 constituencies.

    If there is a clear leader of the race, celebrations are likely to break out – but only the IEBC can make it official.

    To win the presidential race in the first round, a candidate needs:

    • more than half of all the votes cast across the country
    • at least 25% of the votes cast in a minimum of 24 counties.

    Otherwise voting goes to a second round which by law has to happen by 8 September.

    Source: BBC

  • Kenya elections: Raila Odinga and William Ruto in tight race for president

    International tabloids are reporting that Kenya’s 2022 Presidential election is seeing tight race between Deputy President William Ruto and former prime minister Raila Odinga.

    Provisional results already indicate that it would not be easy-peasy for any of the candidates.

    It is unknown who is in lead position but more 90% of results posted from thousands of individual districts, local tallies of the raw data suggest little separates the pair.

    The two frontrunners in the presidential race are seasoned politicians.

    Mr Odinga, 77, who is a long-serving opposition leader, nicknamed Baba (“father”) by his supporters, is running for the fifth time. Outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta is backing Mr Odinga.

    Mr Ruto aged 55 is making his first move in the presidency race.

    Two other candidates; David Mwaure and George Wajackoya are also in the race.

    It could be several days before the official result is known.

    This vote follows an intense campaign dominated by debates about living costs, unemployment and corruption.

    Turnout is estimated at around 60%, well short of the 80% in the last election five years ago.

    A largely peaceful election day was marred by logistical delays and a failure of the identification kit in some parts of the country.

    The media, political parties and civil society groups have been compiling their own tallies using these final results declared at the more than 40,000 polling stations.

    But only the electoral commission can declare the winner of the presidential election after verifying the physical and digital forms sent to the national tallying centre.

    It has seven days to announce the result.

    To win the presidential race in the first round, a candidate needs:

    • more than half of all the votes cast across the country
    • at least 25% of the votes cast in a minimum of 24 counties.

    After counting the votes, local officials take a photo of the final tally sheet and send the image to both the constituency and national tallying centres.