Kenya’s Odinga rejects election results

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga

Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, rejected as “null and void” the result of a presidential election he was declared to have lost, adding that Kenya’s democracy faced a long legal crisis.

Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, rejected as “null and void” the result of a presidential election he was declared to have lost, adding that Kenya’s democracy faced a long legal crisis.

The electoral commission chairman declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner of a tight presidential race on Monday, but four election officials disowned the result.

Ruto received 50.49% of the vote, the chairman said, while the 77-year-old longtime opposition figure Raila Odinga received 48.85%.

 “Our view is that the figures announced by [the electoral commission chairman, Wafula] Chebukati, are null and void and must be quashed by a court of law,” Odinga, who was making his fifth run for the presidency, told a news conference in Nairobi.

Odinga took the stage moments after four dissenting election commissioners held a press conference at a different location to accuse the chairman of misconduct.

The aggregation of the vote percentages each candidate received was of “mathematical absurdity,” said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission vice chair Juliana Cherera, highlighting that the number of votes totalled 100.1%, a discrepancy of 0.01%.

Odinga considered the figures presented by the chairman, Wafula Chebukati, as null and void, saying he would “pursue all constitutional and legal options available to us.”