Home » Elections in Kenya: Ruto, Raila in tight presidential race as results trickle in

Elections in Kenya: Ruto, Raila in tight presidential race as results trickle in

by Enock Ndayala
Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga may not vie for presidency in the 2027 General Election

Results for the highly anticipated presidential race started trickling in after polling stations closed around 6 PM on August 9, 2022.
The provisional presidential results show the two main candidates William Ruto and Raila Odinga in a tight race.
By 8:30 AM on Wednesday, August 10, both had crossed the one million mark with William Ruto slightly ahead at 1,308,086.
His closest rival in the presidential race was Raila Odinga 1,294,393 with less than just about 11% of the possible 22 million votes counted.
Kenyans will however have to wait longer to know the winner of the presidential race because the process of verifying all the cast votes from about 46,000 polling stations countrywide is extremely slow and tedious.
In the provisional results, both candidates are still below the 50%+1 needed to win the presidential race in round one.
The duo is held at 49% and if none manages to garner more than half of the total votes cast nationally, then there might be a repeat presidential election.
According to the constitution, a presidential winner has to garner more than half of all votes cast nationally and also win at least 25% of votes cast in more than half of Kenya’s 47 counties.
Opinion polls had placed Raila Odinga ahead with about 47% of those polled picking him as the most preferred next president.
Ruto on the other hand has mostly been placed at 43% or below in all opinion polls conducted the last three months to the General Election.
It is Raila Odinga’s fifth attempt at the presidential race while for William Ruto, it is his first attempt although he has been deputy president since 2013.
Both candidates have committed to accepting the results of the presidential election without resorting to violence.

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