Speaking on Tuesday, a day after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared deputy President William Ruto as President-elect, Azimio team leader Raila Odinga said he will challenge the presidential election results in court.
This makes it his fourth time in a row in which he has rejected the outcome of a presidential poll.
In the recently concluded elections, Ruto scored 7,176,141 votes (50.49 percent of the vote cast) against Odinga’s 6,942,930 (48.8 percent). The difference between their votes was 233, 211 votes.

Raila Odinga faulted the IEBC chairman of making a unilateral decision without involving other commissioners.
“We reject the results announced by Mr Chebukati on August 15. We maintain that there was no winner and a president-elect. We are taking legal and constitutional processes to invalidate what Mr Chebukati announced. We urge all Kenyans to stand tall as we seek to advance the ideals of justice that Kenyans stand for,”
The former prime minister said that while millions of Kenyans came out to vote on August 9, Mr Chebukati had almost plunged Kenya into a political crisis by failing to follow the constitution and the laws governing the elections.
“We in Azimio La Umoja One Kenya were shocked to learn that Mr Chebukati alone knew the results that he was going to announce without consulting other commissioners. The election law does not allow the chairperson to dictate to other commissioners on the results. Decisions at the commission, according to the law, are taken either through consensus or through voting,” said Odinga.

Raila maintains that Mr Chebukati’s actions had negated the gains of Kenya’s democracy and that the country faces a constitutional and political crisis. “If it were not for the peace loving nature of the Kenyan people, the country could have plunged into chaos,” he said.
By Wanjiru Mbaru