Defeated Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga to challenge election result

Narrow loser hits out at ‘null and void’ process

Kenya is on tenterhooks after defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga called into question the validity of the country’s election result, dismissing it as “null and void”.

The day after his opponent William Ruto was announced as the president-elect by a thin margin, Mr Odinga said he will challenge the verdict in the country’s courts.

The 77-year-old, who has failed in his four previous attempts to win the presidency, warned that the nation now faced a protracted legal crisis.

“Our view is that the figures announced by [electoral commission chairman Wafula] Chebukati are null and void and must be quashed by court of law,” he said on Tuesday.

His comments came shortly after four of the country’s seven election commissioners stood by their earlier decision not to endorse the legitimacy of the final tally, which gave Mr Ruto 50.49 per cent of the vote, compared to Mr Odinga’s 48.5 per cent.

The four officials distanced themselves from the result of last Tuesday’s election before it was made public on Monday, citing their concerns with the “opaque” counting process. Tussles broke out in the national tallying centre as emotions ran high.

“What we saw yesterday was a travesty and blatant disregard of the constitution,” Mr Odinga said, referring to the lack of consensus among the election commissioners.

However, the respected Election Observation Group expressed its view that the final tally was largely accurate.

Mr Odinga’s upcoming legal challenge is not his first. Five years ago, he successfully appealed Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory against him, before telling his voters to boycott the re-run, which elected his opponent to a second term in office.

The results are ‘null and void’, Odinga claims (Reuters)

More than 100 people were killed in the post-election violence that year, a decade after more than 1,200 people died in the clashes which followed Mr Odinga’s narrow defeat by Mwai Kibaki.

Mr Ruto, who has most recently served as Kenya’s vice president, was charged by the International Criminal Court for his role in the 2007 violence. However, the case was later dropped when Nairobi refused to cooperate.

Kenyans read about the election result (AFP/Getty)

Some African leaders have congratulated the 55-year-old for his victory, but Mr Kenyatta, the outgoing president who backed Mr Odinga’s campaign, has not spoken publicly about the result.

Some protests broke out on Monday night in some Odinga strongholds, including the western city of Kisumu and Nairobi’s huge Kibera slum. Crowds took to the streets, burning tyres and clashing with police.

Anyang’ Nyong’o, the governor of Kisumu, called for calm.