Legally, The 4 IEBC Commissioners That Disowned Election Results Pose No Threat, Says Ruto

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug, 15 – President-Elect William Ruto has rubbished claims that he did not win the concluded presidential elections fair and square after four commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) led by vice chairperson Juliana Cherera, alongside commissioner, Justus Nyang’aya, Francis Wanderi, and Irene Masit distanced themselves from the presidential election results announced by Chairperson Wafula Chebukati Monday evening.

The commissioners said that they can not take ownership of the outcome.

“As you can see the four of us are here and not the Bomas of Kenya where the results are going to be announced because of the opaque nature of how this phase has been handled, we, therefore, can not take ownership of the results that are going to be announced,” said IEBC vice chairperson Juliana Cherera.

Even as the commissioners said that they would issue a detailed statement, Ruto said that their sentiments posed no threat to his victory.

“Legally, constitutionally, the four commissioners pose no threat at all to the legality of the declaration because the constitution is very clear, the returning officer declares the results, the returning officer this evening, Wafula Chebukati declared the results in accordance with the constitution in accordance with the law, any other thing is a sideshow,” said Ruto.

Chebukati is the president returning officer.

The announcement is however likely to be contested in the coming days with leaders from Azimio La Umoja One Kenya saying that they will not accept the outcome of the polls.

“Every organization that bothered to tally their results came to the same results whether it is Reuters, Al-Jazeera, Ntv and Citizen TV everyone arrived at the same results…we just came to fulfill the constitutional mandate that it had to be declared by the chairman of the IEBC, otherwise, in terms of results, surely good people all of us knew what the results were,” said Ruto.

Ruto further condemned pockets of violence witnessed at the Bomas Auditorium saying that those involved in the scuffle aimed at taking Kenya ‘backwards’.

The president-elect even alluded to attempts to disrupt the verification process in favour of a particular side.

“Not that there was no attempt, with time you will know all these games that have been going round in Bomas, I think that will come out with time. Maybe the people who were disappointed this evening are the ones who erroneously believed in the deep state or the so-called site and they erroneously believed that the results could be changed,”

Ruto said this year’s elections were the most transparent and credible in Kenya’s history, particularly following IEBC’s decision to make public elections results on their portal.

“I am yet to come across anybody who says that what they saw in the portal is not what was declared in the polling station. The posting of the forms 34A from every polling station was a stroke of genius because within six hours of the counting of the votes, I think almost 80 percent of the results were available on the portal,”

“Even as we came to Bomas, it was only somebody from the moon who did not know the results, let us be honest with one another….All of us here with a simple calculator, just with plus and minus you tally the results, you did not need an algorithm, square roots or all those complicated things you just needed a simple calculator,”

Presidential Election Results

The tight presidential race saw Ruto emerge victorious in the announcement made by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati.

Chebukati said that Ruto garnered 7,176,141 votes representing  50.49 per cent of the total votes cast nationwide.

“He achieved the minimum number of 39 counties at 25 per cent,” he said.

“In accordance with the constitution and the law, I Wafula Chebukati, Chairperson of the IEBC, hereby declare that Ruto William Samoei, has been duly elected as the president of the Republic of Kenya under the provisions of article 138 of the constitution in the presidential election held on August 9, 2022,”

Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga emerged second in the race garnering, 6,942,930 votes. This represents 48.85 per cent of the total votes cast.

Other candidates in the race included Roots Party’s George Wajackoyah who garnered 61,969 representing 0.44 per cent of the total votes cast. He came in third in the race.

Agano party’s David Mwaure Waihiga who came in fourth garnered 31,987 votes which represents 0.23 per cent of the total votes cast.