Uhuru hits victory mark
Updated 45 mins ago
NAIROBI, KENYA: The son of Kenya’s first
president has all but secured victory against
Raila Odinga and six others to become the
country’s Fourth President.
Barring any changes or challenges to a final
tally released early this morning, Uhuru will
win the presidential vote with a razor-thin
margin, ending a dramatic contest against the
Prime Minister.
Following delays in tallying and verification,
announcement of the final confirmed result of
the March 4 presidential election was put off
until 11am today. Updates to electoral figures
at 2am, however, included the tally from the
six constituencies whose results were still
outstanding. They were Laikipia North, Emurua
Dikirr, Molo, Konoin, Narok West and Turkana
Central. Uhuru garnered 141, 447 to push his
final tally to 6, 173, 433. Raila secured 58, 485
in the six constituencies to raise his final tally
to 5, 340, 546.
If the figures stand, Uhuru will go over the
constitutional threshold of 50 per cent plus
one by a narrow margin of 4,100 votes. The
Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission will make the official declaration
of whether he has secured the vote at 11am
after verification of the results by all parties.
Earlier, addressing the media at about 15
minutes past midnight, IEBC commissioner
Yusuf Nzibo said the electoral body and
political party agents needed more time to
audit the results before a final declaration
could be made.
At the Jubilee alliance’s tallying centre,
however, last night had the air of a victory
party after the gap in official results between
Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila peaked at over one
million votes just after 10pm. While the lead
shrank later in the evening, it mostly remained
just above the 50 per cent threshold.
At 3am, with all 291 constituencies reporting,
Uhuru had 6,173,433 valid votes (50.03 per
cent) against Raila’s 6,173, 433 (43.28 per
cent). The Jubilee alliance and CORD
candidates also had at least 25 per cent of the
vote in about 30 counties each.
Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” ― Rashi