Announced losing the presidential election of August 9, Raila Odonga described on Tuesday as “parody” and “obvious contempt for the Constitution” this result.
Le Monde With AFP
Raila Odonga, loser of the presidential election of August 9 in Kenya, said on Tuesday August 16, that he would continue “all the legal and constitutional options” possible to challenge the results which gave his rival, William Ruto, winner on the thread.
“We will do it with regard to the many flaws in the elections,” said Raila Odonga, in her first speech since the announcement, the name of the winner. He also described as “parody” and “obvious contempt for the constitution” this result.
“Yesterday, our emerging democracy suffered a major setback” and “Kenya faces a deep political and legal crisis”, he continued, denouncing the role played according to him by the Independent Electoral Commission and Borders (IEBC), marked by internal divisions. “We are aware of the past political prejudices of the IEBC which plunged this country into its darkest chapter,” added Raila Odinga.
233,000 deviations
At the end of a day marked by the split of the electoral commission, the outgoing vice-president, William Ruto, was declared the winner in the first round of the ballot, with 50.49 % of the votes. The gap is slim: 233,000 votes separate the current number two from the government from her main opponent, Raila Odonga.
At 77, Raila Odonga competed for the fifth time in the presidential election. Given ahead in the polls and supported by the outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta, the veteran of Kenyan politics only collected 48.85 % of the votes.
In 2017, he challenged the results before the Supreme Court, which had invalidated the ballot. The post -electoral crisis which had followed the election had caused inter -ethnic clashes and the death of more than 1,100 people, the worst violence since the country’s independence in 1963.