Odinga. Raila Odinga the former Prime Minister and also the main rival in the just concluded August 9th elections in Kenya has rejected the presidential results announced by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson on Monday.
The IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati on Monday evening declared William Ruto as the winner of the 2022 election with over 7 million votes leading the race that had 4 contestants.
In his statement, Odinga articulated that the figures announced by the IEBC chairman are null and void which should be contested in the Courts of law because in their view as the Azimio La Umoja coalition there is neither a legal and valid declared winner nor a President-elect.
“We are pursuing constitutional and lawful channels and process to invalidate Mr. Chebukati’s illegal and unconstitutional pronouncement and we are certain that justice will prevail” Odinga highlighted.
The former Prime Minister also noted that the IEBC chair’s announcement of a winner on Monday was a nullity and he acted with gross impunity and in total disregard of the constitution and laws which could have lured the country into chaos.
Odinga who was speaking next to his running mate Martha Karua at Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon also said that the country’s democracy suffered a major setback after the announcement and as a result, Kenya faces a political crisis.
Odinga however commended his supporters who have stayed calm in the last days and urged them to continue doing so and not to take the law into their own hands.
“I also commend the 4 commissioners who stood up to the bullying and illegal conduct of Mr. Chebukati we are proud of them and I ask them not to fear anything because Kenyans are with them,” Odinga added.
Confident Odinga also clarified that the IEBC chair alone had access to the tally of the presidential vote and he denied all commissioners access to the information until he suddenly appeared before the commissioners late Monday afternoon.
In a four-point statement by the assistant IEBC chairperson Juliana Cherera who led the four commissioners who boycotted the result announcement on Monday, it declined to take ownership of the said presidential results because the aggregation resulted in a total exceeding 100%.
Odinga of the Azimio coalition gathered 6,942,930 votes which represented 48.85% and William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance gathered 7,179,141 which represented 50.49% of all the total casted votes.
