Kenya court upholds presidential election result

Kenya’s supreme court has upheld the result of the August 9th election which saw outgoing vice president William Ruto become the country’s fifth president.

The court had been given two weeks to make a ruling after a petition was brought by long-time opposition figure Raila Odinga (77), who has run for the presidency five times, losing each time.

Kenya’s chief justice Martha K Koome said the seven sitting judges were unanimous in dismissing Mr Odinga’s petition, along with arguments brought by other complainants, which sought to have the election results annulled and a new vote held.

Speaking in a televised judgment - a longer version of which will be available in the coming weeks - Ms Koome said the petitioners failed to provide credible evidence of wrongdoing.

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She said parts of the evidence submitted were “outright forgeries.”

Regarding one submission, she said: “This turned out to be nothing but hot air and we were taken on a wild goose chase that provided nothing of value.”

Although the voter turnout was one of the lowest in decades, she said that did not equate to a “calculated suppression”.

Kenya’s presidential election results were announced on August 15th, amid chaos that Koome described as a “split-screen scenario”. Four of the country’s seven electoral commissioners held a separate press conference saying they would not back the final results.

Koome said they did not present evidence to justify their reasoning. “Are we to nullify an election on the basis of a last-minute boardroom rupture, the details of which remain scanty and contradictory?” she asked. “This we cannot do.”

The supreme court was given two weeks to rule on the petition.

In a statement afterwards, Mr Odinga said: “We have always stood for the rule of law and the constitution. In this regard, we respect the opinion of the court although we vehemently disagree with their decision today.”

Mr Ruto (55), said on he welcomed the court’s verdict with “tremendous humility”.

Mr Odinga contested the election with the backing of outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta. The two men are the sons of the country’s first president and vice president, and were long-time rivals before forming an alliance in 2018.

Mr Ruto - like Mr Kenyatta - once faced charges for crimes against humanity from the International Criminal Court for his alleged involvement in post-election violence, though these were eventually dropped.

Kenya, an East African country of roughly 55 million people, has one of the most expensive elections globally per capita.

While this vote was hailed by many pro-democracy campaigners as the most transparent yet, with tens of thousands of voting totals uploaded online for anyone to add up, this did not stop allegations of wrongdoing and rigging.

One reporting officer, Daniel Mbolu Musyoka, was murdered after going missing while on duty in an incident which echoed the murder of a senior electoral commission official, Chris Msando, during the last election. In a statement on Monday, the electoral commission said the abuse of its staff reached an “unimaginable scale.”

The first sitting of Kenya’s national assembly is set for Thursday. If the court had determined that the election was not valid a fresh vote would have been held within 60 days. In 2017, the election result was overturned and the vote run again, with the same eventual outcome.