Raila Odinga, the losing candidate in the Kenyan presidential election, does not recognize the results announced on Monday. Odinga said that on Tuesday in a speech in the capital Nairobi. Opposition leader Odinga said he wants to use all “legal and constitutional possibilities” to challenge the result, which William Ruto declared the winner. He did not say what that means exactly, but analysts suspect that he will challenge the result in the Kenyan Supreme Court, as he successfully did in 2017.
During his speech, Odinga focused mainly on Wafula Chebukati, the head of the Kenyan Election Commission. Chebukati announced the results on Monday, despite four members of the seven-member electoral commission not supporting him in his verdict. They believe that the final phase of the vote counting was ‘not transparent’. Odinga narrowly lost the election, according to Chebukati: he won 48.5 percent of the vote, while William Ruto received 50.49 of the vote. Odinga said the results announced by Chebukati are “null and void” and “must be quashed” by a court; Ruto, in turn, called Chebukati “a national hero.”
Just before Odinga’s speech, who lost the presidential election for the fifth time, the four members of the electoral commission also held a press conference in which they reiterated their verdict from the day before. The elections in Kenya took place on August 9, but it took six days for the results to be announced. If Odinga does indeed go to the Supreme Court and the court reverses the result, new elections must be organized within 60 days. If not, William Ruto will be inaugurated as president.
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