KENYA: Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) declares President Mwai Kibaki as the winner in presidential election

Record ID: 361734

  • Title: KENYA: Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) declares President Mwai Kibaki as the winner in presidential election
  • Date: 30th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN08) NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 30, 2007) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE/ OPPOSITION CANDIDATE, RAILA ODINGA WALKS IN (SOUNDBITE) (English) OPPOSITION CANDIDATE, RAILA ODINGA, SAYING: "I therefore ask that this current exercise and impasse can only be resolved through an election recount in Nairobi under the full glare of media watchfulness and the involvement of
  • Embargoed: 14th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACO97XZBHHRWB2LH7JROFF3A2C
  • Story Text: Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) declares President Mwai Kibaki as the winner in presidential election. Opposition protests the decision, questioning its basis.
    President Mwai Kibaki has beaten opposition rival Raila Odinga by a narrow margin to win re-election in Kenya's closest ever vote, the head of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) said on Sunday (December 30).

    "The commission therefore declares Honourable Mwai Kibaki as the winner," ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu told a small group of reporters at the election tally centre.
    The announcement sent Kibaki supporters pouring into the street in celebration.
    Kibaki was sworn in immediately after winning re-election for a second five-year term.
    But it was also sure to trigger protests from Odinga's party, which has accused the government of widespread rigging. Those accusations have fuelled two days of ethnic riots.
    Scuffles and heckling erupted moments before the announcement was made, forcing police to escort Kivuitu to safety soon after he began reading final tallies in the cliff-hanger vote.
    Party agents, politicians and most journalists were then ejected from the Nairobi conference centre, and the ECK head completed the result announcements in front of a small group.
    Delays announcing official results have triggered furious protests and ethnic clashes across the east African nation.
    In the latest trouble, thick smoke billowing from torched homes in a Nairobi slum could be seen across the capital.
    Police reinforcements in riot gear were deployed in large numbers as many Kenyans feared worse violence was still to come.
    The few supermarkets and food shops that opened were packed with nervous customers. Shelves of meat, milk, beer, bottled water and other provisions emptied fast.
    Business leaders said this weekend's tribal clashes were costing more than 30 million U.S. dollars a day in lost taxes -- not to mention looting damage -- and threatened investment in Kenya.
    Earlier on Sunday Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party official William Ruto addressed party agents and journalists waiting at a conference center for the ECK to announce presidential poll results.
    He said Odinga had won almost three times as many parliamentary seats as Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) saying it proved the government should go. Twenty ministers have lost their seats.

    "All the documents that we have, show clearly that Raila Amolo Odinga has 4,215,437 and honourable Mwai Kibaki has 3,748,261 votes. That is what we have and if the commission is going to announce other results they must tell us on the basis of what," said Ruto.
    The Kenyan opposition leader also called for the government to allow a recount of the votes cast in the presidential election, saying the government had lost it's legitimacy because of fraud.

    "I therefore ask that this current exercise and impasse can only be resolved through an election recount in Nairobi under the full glare of media watchfulness and the involvement of election observers. Only such a process will assure Kenyans that this was a credible election," said Odinga.
    Chief EU observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told Reuters there was a "massive question mark" over the tally of votes.
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