All Eyes On Bomas: Will It Be Yellow or Blue Smoke?

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 15- After a dueling campaign pitting Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto and Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance candidate Raila Odinga, Kenya is ripe for its fifth President, days after largely peaceful elections.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was expected to release the presidential results on Monday and latest Tuesday, after tallying of votes.

Legally, the electoral body has 7 days, which lapses on Tuesday.

But all indications are that the Wafula Chebukati-led body will declare the results on Monday after much of the Form 34A and B were verified and results announced.

At least 14.1 million people participated in the exercise that was marred by a low voter turnout.

IEBC had registered more than 20 million people as voters.

The latest statistics from IEBC show a tight race between Ruto, who has served as Deputy President for 10 years and Odinga, a longtime politician, who once served as a Prime Minister.

The election has been hailed as transparent after the IEBC created a portal where all the results from more than 40,000 polling stations can be accessed by all.

Even with that, there has been widespread anxiety, with the delayed declaration said to be a contributing factor.

Kenya has had a dark past with elections in the past, with thousands of lives having been lost in various post-election violence and others internally displaced.

The 2007-2008 Post-Election-Violence left more than 1,000 lives dead, while some 600,000 people were internally displaced. Six Kenyans among them outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy Ruto faced charges against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

All the cases were dropped due to insufficient evidence, with the prosecution citing massive interference of witnesses.

Religious leaders and observers have urged leading political leaders to urge their supporters to remain calm, regardless of the presidential outcome.

Aggrieved parties have been asked to seek legal remedy, as provided in the constitution.

The verification and tallying of results exercise had been marred by counter accusations of vote rigging, which the Commission said had delayed them in releasing the results.           

Both Ruto and Odinga have called for calm while urging their supporters to remain peaceful.

“Let us remain patient with the processes that are ongoing and pray for IEBC,” he said on Sunday.

“We have gone through this process peacefully and it is my prayer that we end it, peacefully. We pray to God that the end is better than we started. We want to patiently and peacefully for the next process.”

He added that “Yes we have voted, but it is God who chooses.

On his part, Odinga who attended a church service in Karen said, “we thank God for having taken us through a vigorous campaign moment,” Raila said “The election process was peaceful, we hope that peace will prevail even after the election.”