Kenya’s Supreme Court Upholds Ruto’s Presidential Victory Over Odinga.

Olusiji Balogun.

The Supreme Court of Kenya on Monday upheld the election of William Ruto as president, ending an acrimonious courtroom battle over disputed results from the Aug. 9 election and confirming Mr. Ruto as the fifth president of a country often seen as a beacon of democratic strength in Africa.

In a lengthy judgment that rejected accusations by Mr. Ruto’s rival, Raila Odinga, that the vote had been rigged, Chief Justice Martha Koome swept aside claims of stuffed ballots, hacked computers and falsified results that she variously described as “sensationalism,” “hot air” and “a wild-goose chase that yielded nothing of value.”

William Ruto who is incumbent Vice-President will be inaugurated as president on 13th September, 2022 as the 5th president of Kenya.

Supporters flooded the streets in celebration across the Rift Valley, Mr. Ruto’s main stronghold, after the verdict was announced. A jubilant and smiling Mr. Ruto addressed supporters at his mansion in Karen, outside Nairobi, where he lauded the court, extended a conciliatory hand to his rivals and promised to bring the country together after a bruising, if largely peaceful, election.

“We are not enemies,” he said. “Let us unite to make Kenya a nation that everyone will be proud to call home.” “My election opens possibilities for all our children irrespective of their background, irrespective of where they come from and irrespective of their financial status.  but this afternoon, with a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of Kenya, our long suspenseful and protracted election has come to an end. My fellow presidential candidates made our respective cases before Kenyans and submitted ourselves to their supreme decision at the ballot” Ruto added.

The court’s decision was yet another stinging defeat for Mr. Odinga, 77, a political veteran making his fifth bid for the presidency, having lost the first four. Despite a strong lead in opinion polls before the vote, he lost it by a narrow margin: The court confirmed that Mr. Ruto won 50.5 percent of the ballots to Mr. Odinga’s 48.9 percent, a difference of about 233,000 votes.

In a statement, Mr. Odinga said that while he respected the court’s verdict, he “vehemently” disagreed with the decision, finding it “incredible that the judges found against us on all nine grounds,” a reference to the main points of contention in the case.

At hearings last week, Mr. Odinga’s lawyers argued that Wafula Chebukati, the chairman of Kenya’s election commission, had conspired with foreign agents who hacked into the commission’s computer system and swung the vote in favor of Mr. Ruto.

The court pulled few punches in systematically demolishing those claims.

In a judgment that took nearly 90 minutes to read out, Chief Justice Koome, flanked by six other justices, said they had found “no credible evidence” that the electoral computer system was interfered with. She dismissed claims by four of the country’s seven election commissioners, who dramatically  disowned the result minutes before it was announced, that the vote was fatally flawed.

“Are we to nullify an election on the basis of a last-minute boardroom rupture?” she said. “This we cannot do.”

And she offered scathing criticism of lurid rigging accusations that she said were based on forgeries and hearsay, warning lawyers against introducing sworn statements that were demonstrably based on “falsehoods” — a likely line in the sand for future legal challenges to election results in Kenya.

In Mr. Ruto’s home village, Kamagut, about 200 miles north of Nairobi, Esther Cherobon joined in the scenes of exultation. “I am very excited that someone who knows me by name, who never wore a shoe to school, has become president,” she said in a phone interview.

It was “a miracle” that Mr. Ruto, whose campaign made much of his humble background and early years selling chicken on the roadside, had won, she added.

Equally remarkable is Mr. Ruto’s rise to the top following accusations that he once committed crimes against humanity. A decade ago, he was facing trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of orchestrating communal violence after the 2007 election, which resulted in over 1,200 deaths.

The trial collapsed in 2016 after key witnesses withdrew testimony and the Kenyan government stopped cooperating with the court. But the international court declined to formally acquit Mr. Ruto, then Kenya’s vice president.

The Kenyan Supreme Court decision on Monday, delivered to a courtroom packed with lawyers dressed in flowing black gowns and some in horsehair wigs, came less than a month after a fierce electoral battle that was closely followed across Africa and beyond.

The economic powerhouse of East Africa, Kenya is a key Western ally in the fight against terrorism, a burgeoning technology hub and a stable democracy in a region dominated by autocrats and conflicts.

Although some schools in the capital, Nairobi, had closed for the day, worries of a backlash from Mr. Odinga’s supporters failed to materialize. In Kisumu, a major Odinga stronghold in western Kenya, traffic flowed and businesses reopened within minutes of the verdict.

Supporters of Raila Odinga in Nairobi last month. The court battle that unfolded in the past week had threatened to erode Kenya’s democratic foundations.Credit…Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

While some residents said they were shocked by the decision, many shrugged and said they would abide by it. “Life has to go on,” Maurice Ogange, a motorcycle taxi driver, said by phone. That reaction stoked hopes that this Kenyan election could yet prove an example to the region.

Kenya’s past three elections were marred by violence and lengthy court disputes. This one was largely peaceful, but in recent weeks it became increasingly contentious.

There were chaotic scenes as the results were declared on Aug. 16, and the often-sensational rigging accusations that followed in court, amplified by partisan news outlets, risked undermining voter confidence in the democratic system.

When it became clear the result was going against Mr. Odinga, his top election official denounced the vote-tallying center as a “crime scene,” and then rampaged through it with other supporters, clashing with security officials

It was not lost on anyone that the four rebel electoral commissioners were appointed last year by Kenya’s departing president, Uhuru Kenyatta — Mr. Ruto’s political nemesis and Mr. Odinga’s ally.

But the Supreme Court’s evenhanded treatment of the sensitive case over the past two weeks underscored the growing independence of Kenya’s senior judiciary and, more broadly, strengthened the country’s confidence in its own institutions.

Having narrowed the case to nine key questions, including whether Mr. Ruto had attained over 50 percent of the vote, the justices spent three sleepless nights before reaching a unanimous decision, the deputy chief justice, Philomena Mwilu, said in brief remarks on Monday.

“Now, you allow us to go home and sleep,” she said before the hearing adjourned.

Other key institutions, however, emerged from the election damaged or discredited.

Split into rival factions, the election commission saw its reputation badly hit. While the verdict largely vindicated its chairman, Mr. Chebukati, the court suggested that he had overstepped his mandate in delivering a final result without the backing of his own commissioners.

The court also heard disturbing testimony that senior police, defense and security officials had tried to pressure Mr. Chebukati into denying victory to Mr. Ruto, suggesting a dangerous rift in major state institutions.

Despite his painful defeat, Mr. Odinga’s legacy as a champion of democracy remains undiminished. For decades the dogged outsider of Kenya’s politics, he served years in prison under the authoritarian leader Daniel arap Moi, who in 1982 accused him of fomenting an attempted coup.

This time, however, victory seemed within reach thanks to a political pact that Mr. Odinga sealed with Mr. Kenyatta in 2018. But that deal, known as the “handshake,” dismally failed to deliver the votes Mr. Odinga needed to win.

Breaking a conspicuous silence since the vote last month, Mr. Kenyatta delivered a brief speech on Monday evening that was laced with criticism of the Supreme Court and its decision. The president committed to a smooth transition of power but declined to name or congratulate his successor.

Mr. Ruto’s candidacy was also rife with contradictions. A wealthy businessman, he cast himself as an underdog and largely ignored that he has been in power as vice president under Mr. Kenyatta since 2013.

But his appeal to the millions of young Kenyans who, like his younger self, were striving to make ends meet, struck a new chord in a country where politics is often dominated by ethnic loyalties.

Even so, many young Kenyans were turned off by both candidates. Turnout fell to 65 percent of the country’s 22.1 million registered voters from 80 percent in 2017.

Credit: Additional reports from New York Times