Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner Friday of a disputed election with 54.27 percent of votes, beating his rival Raila Odinga who scored 44.74 percent, the election commission announced.
“Having fulfilled the requirement by law… I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta… as president elect,” said polls commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, as cheers and singing broke out at the national tallying centre.
Odinga’s campaign on Friday suggested a possible way out of the dispute, with officials saying they might accept the results if they were able to inspect the electoral commission’s computer servers. But for days, some of his most extreme supporters have promised to take to the streets if Kenyatta was announced the winner.
According to the official results, Kenyatta received 54.2 percent of the votes to Odinga’s 44.7 percent.
This week, Nairobi, normally a frenetic city of legendary traffic jams, was transformed into a relative ghost town, with many families leaving out of fear. On Friday morning, in anticipation of the official results being announced, Odinga’s supporters staged small demonstrations in some areas, taunting the police and chanting “No Raila, no peace.”
Even though Kenya has been considered a model of political and economic stability in East Africa in recent years, it is riven by tribal loyalties. In 2007, more than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence after Odinga lost that year’s presidential election amid alleged vote-rigging.
Kenyatta, 55, the son of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, is a member of the Kukuyu ethnic group, which has dominated politics since Kenya’s independence from Britain in 1963. Odinga, his longtime political rival, belongs to the Luo tribe.
Kenyatta was first elected in 2013, and has tried to project the image of a reformer, even as his government has been plagued by allegations of corruption. In his campaign, he emphasized his commitment to expanding Kenya’s infrastructure.
In an acceptance speech, Kenyatta addressed his opponents, saying: “We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic,” He later added, “There is no need for violence.”