Unrests in Kenya after Ruto declared winner in presidential election | DW News

After being declared the winner of Kenya's presidential election, current Deputy President William Ruto struck a note of unity. Ruto, who won 50.49% of the vote, said he promised to "run a transparent, open and democratic government. I want to promise all the people of Kenya — whichever way they voted — that this will be their government."

His words may not be of comfort to all, with supporters of losing candidate Raila Odinga protesting in the western city of Kisumu against the result. Several electoral officials from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said they could not "take ownership" of the result, and a legal challenge by Odinga is expected by many. The wait for the results, which were days overdue, was an anxious time for Kenyans who crowded around radios and televisions for news of who their next president might be. The laborious process towards making a declaration required that once votes were counted, returning officers must take a photo of the final tally sheet and send the image to both the constituency and national tallying centers. With a vacuum of official results from the country's electoral and boundaries commission, the media, political parties and civil society groups compiled their own tallies using results declared at the more than 40,000 polling stations. In 2017, logistical errors led the Supreme Court to annul the presidential result and ordered a rerun.

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