Kenya’s IEBC declares Kenyatta winner of presidential poll

———By Ovasa Ogaga ————

Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) after keeping the world waiting for hours finally declared President Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the country’s disputed election.

Kenyatta garnered 54.2 per cent of votes, according to final results declared by the electoral commission on Friday night. The declaration was boycotted by representatives of the opposition coalition, led by Raila Odinga.

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati declared Mr Kenyatta the winner of the presidential race at exactly 10.17pm.

“He attained 25 percent of votes cast in 35 counties ” Mr Chebukati, the returning officer of the presidential election, said at Bomas of Kenya— the national tallying centre, in the capital Nairobi, according to Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.

The announcement was met with celebrations in the strongholds of Mr Kenyatta’s party, Jubilee, and protests amongst some Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) supporters.

President Kenyatta won with 8.2 million votes compared to 6.8 million votes for his closest rival Raila Odinga.

Mr Odinga was at the electoral headquarters prior to the announcement where he held a meeting with Mr Chebukati’s team and spelled out his demands before the poll results are made public.

Daily Nation said he demanded access to the electoral commission’s servers as a condition to accepting the outcome of the election, which he claimed was rigged in Mr Kenyatta’s favour.

Two hours to the announcement, Mr Odinga’s Chief Agent Musalia Mudavadi and deputy James Orengo told a press conference that IEBC had not addressed their concerns, and that NASA would boycott the results declaration.

“They have told us that we will get a response after the announcement… clearly they are not willing to address them,” Mr Mudavadi said.

(NAN)