Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has declared the outcome of an Aug. 9 presidential election he was declared to have lost “null and void,” adding that Kenya’s democracy faces a long legal crisis.
His first comments on the outcome came just minutes after four of the seven election commissioners said they stood by their decision a day earlier to disown the presidential election result announced by IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati, claiming the final tallying process was “opaque.”
“In our opinion, the figures announced by (electoral commission chairman Wafula) Chebukati are null and void and must be quashed in court,” Odinga, who is running for president for the fifth time, said at a news conference.
Before taking the stage, he broadcast the dissenting commission members’ own news conference from his own venue.
The group’s deputy chairperson, Juliana Cherera, stated that the results that gave current Deputy President William Ruto a razor-thin victory over Odinga were erroneously aggregated. She stated that the elections were properly conducted.
On Monday, Chebukati declared Ruto the winner, with 50.49% of the vote to Odinga’s 48.5%. Minutes earlier, his deputy Cherera told reporters in a separate location that she and three other commissioners rejected the results.
Ruto was declared the winner with a cumulative 7.1 Million votes against Raila Odinga who garnered 6.9 million votes as per the results announced by Chebukati.
The dramatic events of Monday have sparked fears of violence similar to that seen after previous disputed elections.
More than 100 people were killed in 2017 after the Supreme Court overturned the result, citing irregularities in the voting process. More than 1,200 people were killed in widespread violence following the 2007 presidential election a decade ago.
With memories of post-election bloodshed in normally stable Kenya still fresh, Odinga has faced calls from home and abroad to commit to resolving any concerns about the election outcome in court.
