There have been violent protests in Raila Odinga’s stronghold of Kisumu and parts of Nairobi of Kenya following his loss of opportunity to become the Kenyan president for the fifth time.
Odinga’s loss of his fifth presidential bid came after the Deputy President, William Ruto, was announced the winner of the 2022 election.
Recall that it had earlier been reported that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman, Wafula Chebukati, on Monday announced that Ruto won almost 7.18 million votes (50.49 per cent) in the August 9 vote, against Odinga’s 6.94 million (48.85 per cent).
Immediately after the news of the results reached Kisumu, large numbers of protesters congregated on a roundabout in the lakeside city, throwing stones and setting tyres on fire as they blocked roads with broken rocks in rejection of the election results.
It was gathered that similar violent protests erupted in the Nairobi slum of Mathare where Odinga is popular, as the police fired live rounds.
Similarly, across town in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, young supporters, who refer to Odinga as “Baba” or “father” in Swahili, threw stones indiscriminately as they demanded a re-run of the election.
Reports stated that the violence started even before the final results of the election were announced during which the electoral commission’s vice chair and three other commissioners told journalists they could not support the “opaque nature” of the final phase.
According to a medium, TRT World, the sudden division among the members of the commission came minutes after Odinga’s chief agents said they could not verify the results and made allegations of “electoral offences” without giving details or evidence.
Newsflash Nigeria earlier today reported that Ruto emerged victorious after polling 50.49 per cent of the votes to defeat Odinga, his closest rival, who polled 48.85 per cent of the votes.
Kenya’s general election was held on August 9, 2022, with four candidates in the race to succeed Uhuru Kenyatta.
The other candidates are George Wajackoyah of Roots Party and David Mwaure of Agano Party.
About 14 million votes were said to have been cast in the election, representing a turnout of 65 per cent.
To win a presidential election in Kenya, a candidate needs more than half of all the votes cast across the country and at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in a minimum of 24 counties.
Ruto joined politics in 1992 and was part of the youth wing of former president Daniel Arap Moi’s Kanu Party. He was among the activists tasked with mobilising voters for the country’s first multi-party elections held in the same year.
After holding several ministerial positions, the 55-year-old was chosen as the running mate of Kenyatta in the 2013 presidential election.
