Uhuru Kenyatta, 52, wins second term as President of Kenya

Friday August 11, 2017

Kenya's President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has declared Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta the President-elect, following Tuesday’s General Election, granting him a second term in office and effectively making him the 5th President of the Republic of Kenya.

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said he was satisfied President Kenyatta had garnered the requisite 50 per cent plus one of all the votes cast as required by law.

President Kenyatta of the Jubilee Party garnered 8,203,290 votes (54.27pc) against National Super Alliance (NASA) candidate Raila Odinga’s 6,762,224 votes.

Kenyatta who won the 2013 general election with a narrow margin, only securing 6,173,433 (50.07 per cent) votes over Odinga’s 5,340,546 (40.3 per cent.

Chebukati said voter turnout stood at 15,073,662 voters out of the 19, 611, 423 registered, marking a 78.91 per cent turnout.

Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) had in the period leading to the declaration of results cried foul alleging that IEBC servers had been hacked, claiming results be transmitted electronically from 40,880 polling centers being tampered with.

NASA had also released conflicting figures giving its candidate a lead over President Kenyatta, questions being raised over their authenticity even as it emerged the database from which they were said to have originated from was in fact not that of the electoral commission as claimed by Odinga’s alliance.

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The Commission rejected demands by the alliance compelling it to declare the opposition chief as the winner of the election based on the results NASA claimed were legitimate, with Chebukati saying in response that such an action would amount to the breach of IEBC’s independence.

“There’s only one election management body in this country and that is IEBC. This is the body mandated to run elections, count ballot papers and it is our job after counting to announce those results. If a candidate brings results to us, we cannot take those results,” Chebukati said Thursday night.

IEBC also dismissed claims servers upon which the electronic Results Transmission System was anchored had been hacked, Commissioner Abdi Guliye saying no hacking had been reported and that there were measures in place to guard against internal and external intrusion.

“There has not been any hacking and we’ve not reported on any. The story about hacking is something that is not there at all. We’ve invested heavily in security systems and we’ve deployed various personnel to monitor on a 24-hour basis the integrity our system,” Commissioner Guliye asserted.

By the time of the declaration of results, a total of five candidates had conceded defeat even as they urged Kenyans to keep peace and await an official declaration from the IEBC.

Japheth Kaluyu (Independent), Ekuru Aukot (Thirdway Alliance), Cyrus Jirongo (United Democratic Party), Joseph Nyagah (Independent) and Abduba Dida of the Alliance for Real Change all called for patience even as the validation of Forms 34A and 34B got underway on Wednesday.

Both international and local observer missions have described the August 8 election as credible, urging those who feel aggrieved by the outcome to seek legal redress.

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