Kenyans elect Uhuru as president

By Caleb Mutua

Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to be declared Kenya’s fourth president after garnering 50.03 per cent of the 12, 222,980 votes cast in the March 4 elections.

Raila Odinga of the Coalition of Reforms and Democracy emerged second with a total of 5,340,546 votes.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is expected to declare the winner 11AM today.

Thousands of Kenyans burned the midnight oil on Friday, anxiously waiting for the release of the final presidential results, but the electoral commission postponed the announcement to Saturday.

IEBC CEO James Oswago said the commission needed some time to finalize on the total results and ensure that the winner meets the election threshold of 50% plus 1 vote.

The constitution requires the winner of a presidential election get more than half of the votes cast and attain 25 percent of votes cast in more than half of all the 47 Counties.

The former Gatundu South Mp and his running mate William Ruto are facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, a case that his opponents used against him in the presidential campaigns.

However, the son of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta thrashed his opponents in the historic elections to attain the electoral threshold required to win the presidential race in the first round.

Mr Kenyatta is the former Deputy Prime Minister, who also once served as Finance minister and chairman of Kenya African National Union.

Mr Odinga had earlier called for a press conference at his home in Karen today. Cord is expected to move to court after it faulted the tallying process citing election irregularities.

The electoral body and the presidential agents are at the moment verifying all the results before the winner is declared today.

First published in March 2013.