Kenyan presidential election ‘too close to call’

Unofficial results give William Ruto a slight lead over Raila Odinga, but the final result may not be known for some days

Either Raila Odinga (poster left) or William Ruto (poster right) will become the next Kenyan president (AFP via Getty)

The Kenyan presidential race is still too close to call, analysts said on Wednesday, the day after millions of voters headed to the ballot box.

The leading contenders to replace outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta are Raila Odinga, a former deputy prime minister who hails from one of the country’s leading political dynasties, and William Ruto, the incumbent vice-president who styles himself as the champion of the country’s disaffected youth.

After falling out with his deputy, Mr Kenyatta publicly endorsed Mr Odinga, who had unsuccessfully stood against him in the previous two elections.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, unofficial results reported in the Kenyan media suggested Mr Ruto was narrowly ahead of his rival, whom pollsters had tipped to win the vote.

The privately owned Nation group put Mr Ruto on 51 per cent and Mr Odinga on 48 per cent, saying that roughly a quarter of the more than 46,000 polling stations had declared their tallies.

However, academics have warned that some of the provisional results appear to contain errors.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) cannot announce the official winner until all constituency result forms are sent to Nairobi to be counted for a second time. This process is expected to be completed this week, but could take longer.

The IEBC has estimated that around 60 per cent of the 22.1 million registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election – a significantly smaller proportion than the 80 per cent who did so five years ago.

Low voter engagement was blamed in part on the electorate’s disillusionment with politicians’ ability to tackle Kenya’s economic problems. Others pointed to the drought in the north of the country, which has driven millions of people into food dependency.

Another election setback was the fact that 200 voting kits – out of more than 46,000 in use across the country – failed to work correctly.

Although the IEBC said such problems were “not widespread”, some local reports said people were unable to vote because the kits did not recognise them. The issue arose during an election that is due to cost $347m (£284m) – equivalent to more than $15 (£12.40) per voter – making it one of the most expensive in Africa.

The voting on Tuesday was largely peaceful. However, Kenyan police said they were searching for a politician who had shot dead a rival’s aide outside one polling station.

“We are just praying for peace and a good leader,” vegetable seller Crispin Wasonga said in Nairobi.

Both Mr Odinga and Mr Ruta have promised to respect the results if they deem the vote to be fair. It is hoped that the deadly post-election violence seen in 2007 – and, to a lesser extent, in 2017 – will be avoided this year.