Breaking: Finally, William Ruto declares winner of Kenya presidential election

About a week after Kenyan citizens voted in a presidential election, the country’s electoral body has declared Deputy President William Ruto as winner with a marginal victory over his close rival ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Ruto polled over seven million valid votes while Odinga scored a little below seven million, according to the results as announced in major global TV channels including Al-Jazeera and our own (TV) Arise News watched by NewsTrends correspondent.

Ruto won the race to be the fifth president of the East African nation, according to results announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Before Monday’s declaration, results of 141 of the 292 constituencies had earlier been confirmed, according to a report with Ruto winning about 51 per cent against Odinga’s 48.

Ruto in his acceptance speech dedicated the victory to the Kenyan people and congratulated the electoral body for doing a good job.

“There are no losers. The people of Kenya have won because we raised the political bar,” the president-elect said after the announcement on Monday.

“I want to promise all Kenyans that I will run a transparent, open democratic government,” he added, pledging to build on the good foundation laid by the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The electoral commission head had earlier admitted that announcing the result of Tuesday’s election had been too slow as the verification of results was stopped several times after complaints by supporters of the two main candidates.

On Saturday night, Odinga’s supporters entered a restricted area and accosted electoral officials, accusing them of tampering with the vote.

His chief campaign manager was able to get to the lectern used by top electoral commission officials, where he criticised the result verification process.

“I want to announce to the nation that Bomas of Kenya is a scene of crime,” said Saitabao Ole Kanchory, before the microphone was switched off and he was led away. Bomas is the name of the cultural centre in the capital, Nairobi, which is being used as the main tallying centre.

Ruto’s supporters accused their opponents of interfering with the tallying process.

Riot police were deployed inside the building to reinforce security.

There have been calls for peace from several leaders and bodies including the Catholic Church which asked for “patience and civility” and urged the main candidates to show “restraint and statesmanship” as anxiety grows.

“I want to become an instrument to bring peace, to heal, unite and keep the hope alive in our country,” Odinga said on Sunday morning at a church service in Nairobi, his first public remarks since election day.

Ruto also attended a church service on Sunday, and urged Kenyans to exercise restraint, saying, “We ask all of us to be patient with all the processes that are going on at the moment and to pray for the IEBC [electoral commission] so that they can complete this exercise in the manner in which we voted.” he

Media organisations have been releasing provisional tallies using official data from the 46,000 polling stations. They also show a tight race. About 14 million votes were cast – a turnout of 65%.