KENYA’S Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was yesterday confirmed the winner of the presidential election. Report by BBC
Kenyatta won 50,07% of the vote on a turnout of 86%, officials said, narrowly avoiding a run-off ballot.
But main rival Raila Odinga alleged massive vote-rigging and said he would challenge the results of the “tainted election” in the Supreme Court.
Kenyatta is set to face trial at the International Criminal Court over violence that followed the 2007 polls.
He is accused of fuelling the communal violence that saw more than 1 000 people killed and 600 000 forced from their homes. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said the latest elections have been complex and difficult — but also credible and transparent.
It said the turnout was the largest ever. IEBC chairman Issack Hassan, announcing the final vote tallies, said Kenyans had voted “calmly, patiently, proudly and peacefully in the full glare of [the] whole world”.
Hassan praised the candidates who had already conceded victory and urged others to follow suit.
However, Odinga, the current prime minister, said the electoral commission had “failed Kenyans” and that democracy itself was “on trial”.
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But after announcing his Supreme Court challenge, he also appealed for calm, saying: “Any violence could destroy this nation forever.” The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse in Nairobi said this was the tightest of races, with the narrowest of margins.
He said that how Odinga now handles his supporters will determine whether his dispute stays in the courts or spills out on the streets.
