Home ›› 19 Aug 2022 ›› World Politics
Kenya's president-elect William Ruto vowed Wednesday that his new administration would be transparent, saying there was no time to waste in meeting the "huge expectations" of Kenyans.
His comments came as controversy continued to swirl around the election body that declared Ruto the winner of the closely-fought August 9 poll against veteran politician Raila Odinga.
"We will shortly be making steps to run a transparent, democratic but accountable government," Ruto said after meeting with elected leaders from his Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) alliance.
"The expectations of the people of Kenya are huge and therefore we do not have the luxury of wasting any time," the current deputy president said.
Kenya is one of the richest economies in Africa but is grappling with the fallout from the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, with surging inflation and high youth unemployment.
"We are going to govern in a manner that no sector of Kenya is left behind," Ruto added, saying no-one would be excluded, regardless of political or ethnic affiliations.
Measures to make his new administration more accountable would include enabling ministers to be questioned in parliament and ensuring that public servants cannot work for political parties, he said.
A travesty
Ruto is forging ahead with preparations to take office even though his defeated rival is likely to file Supreme Court challenge over the election results.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati declared Ruto the winner on Monday by a margin of less than two percentage points.
But in an extraordinary development four IEBC commissioners rejected the results, saying the numbers did not add up and accusing Chebukati of an "opaque" process.
Chebukati on Wednesday dismissed the allegations by the rebel commissioners, and said members of his staff were being "harassed and intimidated".
As a result, he said the IEBC was further postponing several gubernatorial and local elections that did not take place on August 9 because of various issues.
Odinga on Tuesday branded as a "travesty" the outcome of the largely peaceful poll that was seen as a test of Kenya's democratic maturity.
The veteran opposition leader, who ran with the backing of his old foe President Uhuru Kenyatta, said the figures announced by the IEBC were "null and void and must be quashed by a court of law".
Any petition must be lodged by Monday with the Supreme Court, which then has 14 days to issue a ruling. If it orders an annulment, a new vote must be held within 60 days.
"On the matter of the election, ours is victory deferred but it is coming home," Odinga's running mate Martha Karua told reporters on Wednesday.
If there is no court petition, Ruto will take the oath of office in about two weeks' time, becoming Kenya's fifth president since independence from Britain in 1963.
Both Ruto's camp and Odinga's Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition claim to control parliament after the election.
Results so far show the National Assembly split almost down the middle between the two alliances.
However votes still have to be held in four constituencies because of issues, and the future allegiances of a dozen MPs who stood as independents will be key.
No presidential poll outcome has gone uncontested in Kenya since 2002, and Odinga says he was already cheated of victory in the 2007, 2013 and 2017 elections.
In August 2017, the Supreme Court annulled the election after Odinga rejected Kenyatta's victory. Dozens of people were killed by police in post-poll protests.
