Why there will be no violence after Kenya’s election

There won’t be electoral violence in Kenya this time unlike previous years where post election crises have marred the conduct of elections, opposition party candidate Raila Odinga has indicated.

The indication came after Odinga said in an interview recently that he will accept the decision of the supreme court as final.

On August 9 2022 an election was conducted in Kenya and William Ruto was declared winner with a clear 50.5 percent vote ahead of Raila Odinga’s 48. 8 percent.

Odinga, not satisfied with the outcome of the election in 2022 didn’t allow the tension of the post election to degenerate into violence as he rather chose to file a petition on August 22, 2022, before the Supreme Court challenging the presidential poll results. He alleged that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission didn’t conduct a free and fair election.

‘‘Forms which are filled at the polling stations and announced by the presiding officers which are supposed to be transmitted electronically to the server of the electoral commission, we found out that somehow these forms eventually transmitted to the tallying center of the electoral commission were different,’’ he said.

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In the 2007 presidential election when President Kibaki was declared the winner , opposition party opponent Raila Odinga accused the electoral commission of election manipulation and gross misconduct. The opposition then announced a massive protest which resulted in violence, police confrontation and death of some protesters.

In an interview with BBC Africa Odinga expressed his desire to get a fair ruling from the Supreme court and when asked if he will accept the judgment from the Supreme Court even if it doesn’t grant his wishes or prayers, he said certainly.

‘‘You’ll see that we believe in the rule of law and we believe that the Supreme Court will be fair and just in looking objectively at the complaints we have tabled,’’ he said.

On Monday September 5, 2022 Martha Koome the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya upheld the victory of William Ruto as the winner of the 2022 presidential election.

With the announcement of this judgment there has been relative peace in Kenya.