Kenya | William Ruto elected president in a chaotic climate

(Nairobi) Incumbent Vice-President William Ruto was declared the winner of the August 9 presidential election on Monday, amid a chaotic atmosphere marked by disagreements within the Electoral Commission and the eruption of localized violence.

After a peaceful vote and an interminable six-day wait, the challenger won 50.49% of the vote against 48.85% for his main rival, former historic opponent Raila Odinga. supported by the power, according to the president of the Electoral Commission (IEBC), from which the majority of its members have dissociated themselves.

At 55, the ambitious William Ruto, a wealthy businessman from nothing, becomes the fifth president of Kenya after one of the tightest elections in the history of his country.

In a country historically marked by tribal tensions, he is the second member of the Kalenjin ethnic group to be elected head of state after Daniel arap Moi (1978-2002) since independence in 1963. He succeeds Uhuru Kenyatta, a Kikuyu.

“I will work with all the” political leaders, in a “transparent, open and democratic” country, immediately assured Ruto in a televised speech.

“There is no room for revenge,” he continued, saying he was “fully aware” that Kenya “is at a stage where we need everyone on deck”.

In Eldoret, Ruto’s stronghold, a crowd of several thousand let out their joy, some even forgetting to listen to their leader’s speech, singing or saying prayers with their eyes fixed on the sky, while motorbikes -taxis blared their horns through the city.

“It’s a fantastic day! I feel very, very happy, very proud. This country needed change,” James Kipror, 32, told AFP.

“Opaque process”

By midday, the Electoral Commission’s national counting center, on which the eyes of the whole country were riveted, filled with party representatives, observers and diplomats, who waited for the announcement for several hours, entertained by choirs, under heavy police surveillance.

Early in the evening, Wafula Chebukati announced in front of them the victory of William Ruto with 7.17 million votes against 6.94 million for Odinga. In a context of extreme pressure, the president of the IEBC also declared that he had suffered “intimidation and harassment”.

A few minutes before this announcement, four of the seven commissioners of the IEBC held an unexpected press conference, in a hotel in Nairobi, saying that they rejected these results – which however does not have the power to overturn them.

“Because of the opaque nature of the process […] we cannot take responsibility for the results that are going to be announced,” IEBC Vice President Juliana Cherera said, also calling on Kenyans to “calm.”

Violence erupted on Monday evening in some popular areas of the capital Nairobi, including Mathare and Kibera, two strongholds of Odinga.

In Kisumu, another of its strongholds, police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters and erecting blockades with large rocks.

If Kenya, a country of 50 million inhabitants, is considered an island of stability in a tormented region, the results of all the presidential elections since 2002 have been disputed there. That of 2017 had even been canceled by the Supreme Court – a first in Africa –, seized then by Mr. Odinga.

The country has experienced violent post-election crises, such as in 2007-2008 when the contestation of the results, also by Mr. Odinga, led to interethnic clashes causing more than 1,100 deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.

Cost of life

During the campaign, Messrs. Odinga and Ruto, who know each other well from having been allies in the past, said they would respect the results of free and fair elections, pledging to take any grievances to court.

Given the narrow vote gap — at around 233,000 — an appeal to the Supreme Court is hardly in doubt.

The Odinga camp will have seven days to deposit him. The candidate himself did not speak but his running mate Martha Karua said on Twitter: “It’s not over until it’s over”.

The poll, which also included legislative and local elections, was marked by declining turnout, to around 65%, from 78% in 2017.

A certain disillusionment with politics but also the current soaring prices dominated the electoral campaign. The pandemic and then the war in Ukraine have indeed hit this regional economic engine hard, which despite dynamic growth (7.5% in 2021) remains very unequal.

Defending a “bottom-up economy”, William Ruto proclaimed himself a spokesperson for the “resourceful” in the face of the political dynasties embodied by Kenyatta and Odinga.

The new president and his vice-president Rigathi Gachagua, both imbued with a sulphurous reputation, will also have to deal with soaring debt and endemic corruption.