BREAKING: Ruto Beats Odinga, Wins Kenya Presidential Election

Kenya 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.

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.

Of the 47 counties, the leader of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance garnered over 25 per cent of the vote in 39 counties.

IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati, who addressed the nation at 6 pm, three hours after an earlier slated time, said Ruto also garnered 25 per cent of votes in twenty-four counties in line with the requirement to secure the threshold in half of the counties.

Chebukati who said he had been intimidated and harassed said two of his commissioners  Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye were injured. He said Hussein Marjan had also sustained injuries from skirmishes at the National Tallying Center.

“I have a job to do and I will do it,” he said.