Kenya: Court reaffirms Ruto’s victory in Presidential election

Kenya’s Supreme Court has upheld the victory of former Deputy President William Ruto in the August 9 presidential election.

This came after the apex court ruled on a number of petitions brought by his closest challenger Raila Odinga.

On August 15, Ruto was declared the winner of the ballot by Wafula Chebukati, the head of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) with 50.4 percent of the votes.

Odinga garnered 48.8 percent of the votes.

Opposition candidate, Odinga had alleged irregularities in the August 9 election that was marked by last-minute drama when the electoral commission split and traded accusations of misconduct.

Odinga filed an electronic copy of his challenge against the results of the election, a lawyer for his Azimio La Umoja coalition told a local broadcaster.

“What we did this morning is to file the online copy,” lawyer Daniel Maanzo told Kenyan television channel NTV Kenya on Monday. “After today there will be four days for the other parties to reply.”

Last week the electoral commission chief, Wafula Chebukati, declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner of the election by a slim margin. But four out of seven election commissioners dissented, saying the tallying of results had not been transparent.

This is Odinga’s fifth stab at the presidency; he blamed several previous losses on rigging. Those disputes triggered violence that claimed more than 1,200 lives in 2007 and over 100 lives 10 years later.

However, the unanimous verdict was delivered by Martha Koome, the chair of the seven-member court on Monday.

“We declare the election of the president-elect to be valid,” she said.