Only four out of the seven members of the Kenyan national election commission disowned the result of last week’s contest between declared winner Deputy President William Ruto and now five-time loser Raila Odinga, which is pretty good by Kenyan standards of even wackier pranks and hijinks undermining voters’ faith in democracy. “We are not able to take ownership of the results that will be announced, because of the opaque nature of this last phase of the general election,” commission Deputy Chair Juliana Cherera had told media just minutes before her boss Wafula Chebukati declared Ruto had won with 50.49% to Odinga’s 48.5% with the remainder uncounted.
More than 1,200 people were killed in the bloody aftermath of the disputed 2007 Kenyan election, and at least 100 after the Supreme Court stopped the steal in 2017, so if the death toll is only a few dozen then by Kenyan standards 2022 will definitely be the least violent disputed election result of the 21st century. It’s not clear if candidates are required to provide a long form birth certificate to prove they were born in Kenya to be elected to the presidency or if any such controversy is contributing to this current dispute. We should hire some private detectives to look into that.