Kenya's defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga speaks at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi on August 16, 2022, during a press conference. Kenya's Raila Odinga rejected the results of last week's presidential election, which gave victory to his rival Deputy President William Ruto on August 16, 2022. TONY KARUMBA AFP NAIROBI KISUMU Kenyan politician Raila Odinga rejected the result of the Aug 9 presidential election he was declared to have lost to Deputy President William Ruto and warned on Tuesday of a long legal crisis facing Kenya's democracy.
The results came after four of the seven election commissioners said they stood by their decision a day earlier to disown figures announced by Wafula Chebukati.
In 2007 when more than 1,200 people were killed and in 2017 when more than 100 people died, a series of events that have raised fears of violence similar to what happened in East Africa's richest country.
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Odinga's supporters battled police and burned tires in the western city of Kisumu and the capital Nairobi's huge Kibera slum, but calm had returned to the streets by Tuesday morning.
Odinga, a veteran opposition leader and five-time presidential candidate who was backed by outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, believes that the figures announced by Chebukati are null and void and must be quashed by a court of law.
He told reporters yesterday that what we saw was a travesty, but he appealed to his supporters to remain peaceful. He said that he said that nobody should not take the law into their own hands.
Odinga broadcast the dissenting commission members' news conference at his own venue before taking the stage. He said he was not yet prepared to announce specific legal steps.
Odinga has until Monday to file a challenge with the supreme court.
Election Commission deputy chairman Juliana Cherera said the results showing Ruto winning with 50.49 percent were erroneously aggregated and that Chebukati had not taken into account concerns about the tally raised by other commissioners.
Cherera later said that one of her main claims was based on a mathematical error. She said the additional 0.01 percent of the race's four candidates added up to 100.01 percent, enough to potentially sway the election.
Cherera later acknowledged that 0.01 percent of the 14.2 million votes cast was actually 1,420, but said the tally shows a lack of quality control of the data.