The election of MPs and governors from the Azimio party, led by presidential candidate Raila Odinga, took place on August 13, 2022 at their campaign headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. MOSA'AB ELSHAMY AP NAIROBI veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga led Kenya's presidential race, official election results showed on Saturday, pushing Deputy President William Ruto into second place.
Odinga had 54 percent of the vote, and Ruto had 45 percent, according to the Kenyan election commission's results, which was shown on a large screen at a national tallying center in Nairobi at midday.
East Africa's wealthiest nation and most vibrant democracy held its presidential, parliamentary and local elections on Tuesday.
Ruto and Odinga are in a race to defeat President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has reached his two-term limit. After the last election, Kenyatta fell out with Ruto and has endorsed Odinga.
The official vote tallying has been slow, fuelling public anxiety.
Election commission chairman Wafula Chebukati blamed party agents, who are allowed to scrutinize results forms before they are added to the final tally.
He told a news briefing on Friday that agents in this exercise can't proceed as if we are doing a forensic audit.
We are not moving as fast as we should. This exercise needs to be completed as soon as possible. Representatives from Odinga and Ruto's coalitions did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The results forms are from 291 constituencies and have been posted on the election commission website, according to the news agency and other media outlets. These have not yet been verified, and this tally is well ahead of the official one.
As of 2100 GMT, Reuters had 241 forms that showed Ruto in the lead, with nearly 52.3 percent of the vote, compared to 47 percent for Odinga. Two other candidates had less than 1 percent between them.
Thirty other forms could not be included in the count because they were unreadable or missing information such as signatures, constituency names, or totals.
The results that Reuters is tallying are subject to change, and the forms they are tallying are preliminary. After the forms are uploaded to the commission's website, Kenyan election law requires that they be physically brought to the national tallying center, where party representatives can examine them for any discrepancies.
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The process was designed to protect against the kind of rigging allegations that have caused violence after previous polls. More than 1,200 people were killed after a disputed 2007 election and more than 100 were killed after a disputed 2017 election.
The winning candidate must receive 50 percent of the national vote plus one, and at least 25 percent of the vote from 24 of 47 counties.
The screens displaying other information were not able to be able to ascertain the official tally at 2100 in the national tallying center.
The commission has until Tuesday to declare a winner.