IEBC passes halfway mark, Ruto still in lead

🔵 Kenya election RESULTS 5.30pm

✳ Ruto – 52.46% ➡ 4,775,268 votes
✳ Odinga- 46.87% ➡ 4,266,125
✳ Wajackoyah – 0.44% ➡ 40,063
✳ Waihiga- 0.24% ➡ 21,398

* 180 constituencies out of 291 (61.8%)

(CLICK TO GO TO LIVE RESULTS)

Nairobi, Kenya | THE INDEPENDENT | Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) finally passed the half way mark in vote counting Sunday afternoon. They now remain with less than 48 hours to a constitutional deadline to announce results of the country’s 2022 Presidential election.

Four days after polls closed, IEBC has so far managed to release 61% of the results, due to a long verification process (see info-graphic bottom). They now have up to Tuesday to release the remaining 39% and declare a winner or a tie.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati on Saturday announced new measures to reduce on the number of people interfering with the tallying, but was confident they will have a result early on Monday. Verified by 4.30pm  today are 180 constituencies out of 291.

The IEBC is now hosting all but one returning officer from across the country who have to verify forms 34A and B at the Bomas of Kenya, before results are released.

The election body on Friday announced that one of their returning officers in the capital city is missing. The matter has been handed to police, but election counting will continue.

Odinga maintains lead

William Ruto of UDA maintains a lead that started early in the day, and is at 52.46% with 4,775,268 votes.  Azimo La Umoja flag bearer Raila Odinga fell back, and is at 46.87%, 500,000 votes behind at 4,266,125.

Odinga’s running mate Martha Karua however fell short of declaring victory for her side Saturday at a Nairobi meeting of the party’s leaders from the whole country.

“It is because we disrupted the chest thumping boast and made it idle, that we are now waiting for the election to be called for us,” Karua said.

She hailed the party’s campaign team for eating into UDA’s strongholds, especially in the Mount Kenya region.

“Even where no seat came, votes still came…they may not have been as many as we hoped, but you can imagine if those votes had gone the way some chest thumping fellows were announcing they would go, then, it would have been called out for them on the first day.”

She was confident her party has won the Presidential election. “Ours was a great campaign and we now have our win being tallied. This was a four month campaign versus a four year campaign, ” said Karua, a former Justice minister.

KARUA FULL VIDEO (NTV Kenya)

Kenya on Tuesday held its seventh general election since the introduction of multiparty politics in 1991 where  voters lined to elect the country’s fifth president, members of the National Assembly, senators, and county governors. Kenyans voted for 16,105 candidates, who are vying for a total of 1,879 elective positions.

Vote tallying process

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