Deputy President William Ruto has said he will run a parallel voter tallying center, in a move aimed at attempting to stop vote-rigging in the August Presidential polls.
This comes barely three days after the deputy president alleged that there is a scheme to rig the August 9 presidential votes in favor of ODM leader Raila Odinga who is his main competitor.
Addressing Kenyans in the United Kingdom on Monday, March 7, Ruto said that his recently formed Kenya Kwanza Alliance would set up a parallel tallying center to check the transmission of presidential results from polling stations to the election headquarters in the August 9 polls.
The deputy president who was addressing Kenyans living in the diaspora said he is too smart to have his election stolen.
“If you look at me, I am not the type that anybody can steal their votes from? It is not possible,” William Ruto said.
Ruto who is expected to fly the UDA presidential flag in the August 9, General Election further stated that he has full confidence in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
“Let me give you my word that this election will not be stolen and I have full confidence in our electoral process,” he said.
The move by the deputy resident to own his parallel voter tallying comes barely months after the government warned that it will not allow politicians or their agents to run their own presidential election tallies.
Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said such setups have been identified as among the risks to delivering a free, fair, and credible election.
“The issue of parallel vote tallying – that is a very serious risk in an electoral process. That IEBC is announcing results and another person announcing theirs creates a problem,” Kibichu said.
