Odinga, Ruto still on neck to neck

By Francis Jjunju

11^th Aug 2022

we donot own picture rights

Election head Wafula Chebukati, the Chairman of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission- IEBC has urged people to be patient and not to panic that media houses are releasing differing tallies.

The results are from the same public portal; the approach [of each broadcaster] is different,” but will derive to the same results Chebukati said each organization is making its own calculations based on the manual entry of data from more than 46,000 polling stations.

The privately-owned Nation group had tallied results from three-quarters of polling stations and put Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga ahead with 50.90% of the votes and Dr. William Ruto at 48.42% while Citizens holds Ruto at 49.48% of the vote and Odinga 49.12% with each having hit 6 million votes as of now.

The winning candidate must get 50% of the vote plus one to win, and at least a quarter of votes in 24 out of Kenya’s 47 counties.

If there is no outright winner, there will be a second round of voting without the two presidential candidates currently receiving fractions of a point.

The former Prime Minister has taken a commanding lead in the Lower Eastern Region according to the Final Presidential results declared in six constituencies within Machakos, Makueni and Kitui counties which gave Odinga a lead with 219,009 votes.

Dr Ruto has so far garnered 67,069 votes in the six constituencies.

Meanwhile, voters in most parts of the Lower Eastern Region will have to wait longer to know their next leadership as tallying went on at a slow speed for most part since last night.

The East Africa Community -EAC Observer Mission in Kenya led by Jakaya Kikwete (former Tanzania President) has lauded the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission -IEBC for carrying out a smooth voting exercise that ended on Tuesday.

In a press address today at Serena Hotel Nairobi, the observer mission said that the police also were in position to ensure voters are secured during the exercise in polling stations technology has improved efficiency and increased transparency in the country, unlike in the previous elections.

However, Kikwete said that there were a few cases related to identification of the voters by the KIEMS kit, asking the IEBC commission to note such issues and resolve in future.