Two weeks ago, William Ruto was elected the new president of Kenya with 50.5% of the vote. He avoided a run off with his opponent, the current Prime Minister Odinga.
Much drama and chaos ensued after the election. Members of the electoral commission did not support the result and protests in the streets sided with Mr Odinga. Indeed the latter still won 48% of the vote last August.
Kenya has a history of violence after elections, especially after those in 2007 and 2017. Therefore, the UN had urged the contest of the election to be done through legal channels and in a non-violent way.
Result contested in the Supreme Court
As was expected, Raila Odinga launched a challenge in the court. Odinga had contested the results of elections three times before. The electoral commissioners called the results ‘opaque’. While Mr Odinga himself claimed that the results were ‘null and void’.
Following Mr Odinga’s contestation of the results in the Supreme Court, the courts had two weeks to review the challenge. As of Monday September 5 the court came to a decision. They confirmed William Ruto as the winner of the election.
William Ruto, who had been deputy president under Uhuru Kenyatta since 2013, is now Kenya’s fifth president. Kenya’s Chief Justice, Martha Koome, said: ‘We declare the election of the president elect to be valid.’
The lead up to the ruling of the Supreme Court left Kenya in a time of political uncertainty. If the Supreme Court had annulled the results of the election, Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto would have had to face a run off election.
A new era for Kenya
Some people view Mr Ruto’s win as an end to the dynasty of rulers that have ruled over Kenya. Indeed many had compared the electoral race as ‘hustler v dynasty.’
However, with much of the world in turbulent times, Mr Ruto is taking over in a difficult era for Kenya. He will start his term in an economically turbulent time and with high expectations for his rule. Many of the high expectations come from the country’s poorest, who are believed to have had an important role in his rise to power.