Kenya’s Odinga just ahead in the race for the presidency: first results

Kenya’s former opposition leader Raila Odinga is slightly ahead in the presidential race, partial official results showed on Saturday, while the country remains awaiting the final election result.

Odinga has 52.54 percent of the vote against 46.76 percent for Vice President William Ruto, according to early afternoon figures from the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission, based on results from about 30 percent of the polling stations.

The election is being closely watched as a test of stability in Kenya, which is one of the continent’s most vibrant democracies, but past votes have been marred by rigging and deadly violence.

As the wait for the results dragged on, the electoral commission on Friday acknowledged that the counting process was progressing too slowly and called on the nation to be patient.

Odinga, 77, is making his fifth jab at the top spot – this time with the support of his longtime adversary, outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has already served two terms and is no longer eligible to run.

Ruto, 55, has been deputy president for nearly a decade but was left in the lurch after a 2018 pact between Odinga and Kenyatta that dramatically shifted political allegiances.

Although the campaign was marred by bitterness and widespread disinformation, Election Day was largely peaceful, with few reported incidents of malfunctioning electronic ID devices and delays in the opening of some polling stations.

Turnout was about 65 percent, much lower than the 78 percent recorded in 2017, which some observers say reflects disenchantment with the political elite, particularly among young people.

The state of the economy was a key issue during the campaign as Kenyans struggled to make ends meet as the prices of essential commodities like food and fuel soared around the world.

The winner of the presidential race must receive 50 percent plus one vote and at least a quarter of the votes in 24 of Kenya’s 47 districts.

Otherwise, the country must hold a runoff within 30 days of the original vote.

Both frontrunners have pledged to ensure calm after the result is known as deadly violence from the 2017 and 2007 elections continues to plague Kenyans.

But observers say that with such a close race, an appeal to the Supreme Court by the losing nominee is almost certain, meaning it could be many weeks before a new president takes office.

Kenyans were puzzled when TV stations, which covered the elections continuously, suddenly stopped showing preliminary results late Thursday after different channels showed mixed results.

Media Council of Kenya CEO David Omwoyo insisted there was nothing sneaky about the hiatus or the discrepancies in the numbers.

“No one has asked anyone to stop counting and projecting the results,” he said Friday. “We work with media houses to coordinate the reporting.”

In order to be transparent, the IEBC – which has been criticized for its administration of the canceled August 2017 poll – has uploaded documents to its website showing the results of each polling station.

But Omwoyo said different media groups had different capacities and “counted based on their own parameters”.

Social media was littered with disinformation about the results, with rights activists and civil society groups accusing both candidate camps of sharing misleading posts.

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati on Friday accused political party officials of delaying the counting process by pestering poll officials with unnecessary questions.

“We have found that we are not moving as fast as we should. This exercise needs to be completed as soon as possible,” Chebukati said.

IEBC chief executive Marjan Hussein Marjan also denied on Friday that the commission’s systems and results portal had been hacked, insisting “the mechanisms we have in place are foolproof”.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education announced schools would remain closed until Thursday, two days after the deadline for announcing results.

Evelyn Oduor, a 35-year-old seamstress in Kisumu, the Odinga Lake stronghold, said she was simply excited for the end of the elections and a return to normal life.

“We are very tired at the moment. We don’t go to work. Our students are in the house,” she said.