Uhuru: Ruto is duly elected President
Former president Uhuru Kenyatta has appeared to acknowledge that President William Ruto won the 2022 presidential elections.
While addressing the media at the Jubilee headquarters in Nairobi on April 26, 2023, the former head state further emphasized the Jubilee party’s commitment to peace and noted that as leaders, they accepted the people’s decision to elect their preferred candidates.
While they have no issue with the winners, he stated that they too should respect the rights of others.
“We (jubilee party) is a party of peace and we are here to say that as Kenyans went on the ballot to vote for their preferred candidates in 2022, most of us who were leaders of not just the party but of the country as well we accepted the decision and we gave the people who won their right and we don’t have a problem with that but what we are saying is they need to respect our right as well,” said the former head of state.
Despite Mr Kenyatta’s comments, Azimio leader Raila Odinga has consistently maintained he was rigged out of the 2022 polls.
William Ruto was declared the winner of August 2022 polls amid last-minute chaos among seven senior Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commision (IEBC) officials, with four of them, led by then vice-chairperson Juliana Cherrera describing the results as opaque.
President Ruto garnered 50.5 percent of the vote, beating Mr Odinga by about 200,000 votes and avoiding a run-off.
Mr Odinga then unsuccessfully filed a case challenging the results at the Supreme Court.
On September 13, 2023, Uhuru handed over instruments of power to his successor William Ruto at a colourful ceremony held at the Kasarani stadium in Nairobi.
Mr Odinga has however continued to cry foul. Buoyed by results he says came from a yet to be identified whistleblower, Mr Odinga has maintained he won the elections and has challenged Mr Ruto to open the IEBC servers for verification.
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