Deputy President William Ruto has been declared President-Elect after sailing past the ’50 per cent plus one’ constitutional threshold that requires a winner in a presidential election to garner 50 per cent of votes cast and an additional vote to avoid a runoff, Capital FM reports.
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate garnered 7,176,141 (50.49 per cent) votes beating his closest challenger, Azimio’s Raila Odinga, who managed 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent). Odinga, a veteran opposition leader, was making his fifth stab with the backing of the ruling Jubilee Party led by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The declaration of Ruto as President-Elect was made by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) after a nearly 6-day tallying exercise at the National Tallying Center at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.