Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta declared poll winner with 50.07 percent of vote, as rival Odinga says he will contest result |
Kenyatta had led the poll since results started trickling in
after voting closed on Monday
|
Uhuru Kenyatta , Kenya's deputy prime minister, has won the
country's presidential election with 50.07 percent of the vote, official
results show, just enough to avoid a runoff.
The country's electoral commission said voter turnout in the
election was 88 percent.
Following the announcement on Saturday, Raila Odinga ,
outgoing prime minister, who came second in the election, said he would contest
the result.
Odinga's camp had said during tallying that the ballot count
was deeply flawed and had called for it to be halted.
Speaking in the Kenyan capital on Saturday, Odinga said
"rampant illegality" across the entire election process has led him
to seek a Supreme Court investigation into polling procedures.
Saying almost "every intstrument" of the
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, IEBC, failed, Odinga cited a
lowering of voter registrations in his coalition's strongholds as an area of
concern.
However, Odinga said he has "no other interests"
other than to know if the Kenyans "want us" as their leaders.
Kenyatta and William Ruto, his running mate, said before the
results were announced on Saturday that they were "proud and honoured for
the trust being put on them".
Kenyatta's Jubilee Coalition party "took a message to
the people of Kenya," it said in a statement quoted by the AFP news
agency. "We are grateful to the people of Kenya for accepting this
message."
Joyous supporters of Kenyatta thronged the streets in his
tribal strongholds on Saturday following the result, lighting fluorescent
flares and waving tree branches and chanting "Uhuru, Uhuru".
Speaking after his opponent, Kenyatta, called last week's
polls, "the most free, the most fair, election in Kenya's history."
Kenyatta also thanked his "older brother, Raila Odinga,
for his spirited campaign" and said that now is the time for all Kenyans
to come together.
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