Deputy President William Ruto was proclaimed the winner of Kenya’s tightly contested presidential election by the head of the election commission on Monday despite the results being challenged by a number of commissioners.
Ruto received over 7.18 million votes, 50.49 per cent, compared to Raila Odinga’s 6.94 million votes, 48.85 per cent, according to the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Wafula Chebukati.
Ruto has now been elected as Kenya’s fifth president.
Four out of the seven election commissioners stated they did not approve the results, which earlier on Monday delayed the publication of the long-anticipated presidential election results in Kenya.
According to the vice chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Juliana Cherera, “We cannot take ownership of the result that will be announced.”
She labelled the process “opaque,” but she did not go into additional detail as she promised to provide more details later.