Kenya’s Supreme Court upholds Ruto’s presidential victory, dealing a blow to Raila Odinga, an anti-Somali politician, who contested the outcome

By The Star Staff Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s Supreme Court has on Monday confirmed in a unanimous judgment the electoral body’s decision to declare William Ruto president-elect on Aug. 15, a ringing endorsement for the country’s deputy president, who is well liked by regional leaders and whose message of improving the living standard of the poor resonated with millions of Kenyans, even after his boss, the incumbent, campaigned for his rival.

The court threw out a petition by Ruto’s competitor, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who claimed that the presidential election was not free and fair and pushed the court to either order a rerun or declare him the winner.

“It’s a new dawn for Somalia-Kenya relations that has been wracked by deep mistrust for the last ten years,” said Mohamed Husein Gaas, director of Raad Peace Research Institute, in a brief telephone interview. “Under Uhuru’s presidency, the diplomatic relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point, even to a point of rupture.”

A win for Raila would have been bad news for Somalis in Kenya and Somalia. Raila describes himself as a “strong supporter of Somaliland,” the rebellious northwestern region of Somalia.

Raila had also buttressed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ill-fated bid to politically and economically marginalize the Somali region in Kenya through a proposal aimed at reducing the national government’s revenue allocations for counties inhabited by Somalis.

“[W]e declare the election of the first respondent [Ruto] as president-elect to be valid,” said Chief Justice Martha Koome on Monday, reading the opinions of all the seven judges of the Supreme Court.

The Court also found that Ruto “attained 50 %+1 of all the votes cast in accordance with Article 138(40) of the Constitution.”

Ruto rejoiced at the court’s confirmation of his win, writing on his Twitter account, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” He congratulated Kenyans “who believed in us” and “listened to us.”

Ruto’s swearing-in as Kenya’s fifth president would be on Sept. 13, according to the Kenyan constitution.

President Uhuru said “all the necessary orders to facilitate this process have already been issued.”

“I commit to executing orders of this court to the letter,” said President Uhuru in an address to the nation. “The process of handing over is in progress through the assumption of office committee, which actually has begun its work as of August 10th, 2022.”

“Indeed, it’s my intention to oversee a smooth transition to the next administration,” he said.

Odinga, who got 48.85 percent against Ruto’s 50.49 percent in the Aug. 9 election, said he respected the court’s judgment that seemingly ended his fifth attempt to become Kenya’s president.

In a statement, Raila said that his lawyers “proffered irrefutable evidence and the facts were on our side,” adding: “unfortunately the judges saw it otherwise.”

“We find it incredible that the judges found against us on all nine (9) grounds and occasion resulted to unduly exaggerated language to refute our claims,” he said.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was among early African leaders who congratulated Ruto after Wafula Chebukati, chairman of Kenya’s electoral commission, announced Ruto’s victory on Aug. 15

“I look forward to closely working with you to advance our partnership in all areas of mutual benefit,” President Mohamud said in a tweet message the same day.

A day later, President Mohamud and Ruto spoke by phone in which they “reiterated” their “firm commitment to continue strengthening the #Somalia-Kenya bilateral ties and discussed taking on our shared global and regional challenges.”

Former President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” also congratulated Ruto. “You truly ran an enriching, overpowering campaign & May God help you fulfill your vision for your country,” said Farmajo in a Twitter message.

Ruto’s message of uplifting the poor has won him millions of Kenyans. It also appears to have helped him charm many African leaders. More than a dozen African countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda and Ghana, have celebrated Ruto’s victory, even well before the court issued its judgement on Monday.

Many Somalis would definitely welcome the decisive defeat of Raila, who once boasted about being “one of the first leaders” to visit Hargeisa, the capital of the northwestern region, to lend his support to the secessionists’ push for a separate state. He called secessionists’ ambition a “strong case for recognition of Somaliland as an independent state.”

Also, Somalis, both in Kenya and Somalia, would hardly miss the abuses-laden rule of President Uhuru, whose ten years in power were remembered for its massive security operations that resulted in the extrajudicial killings of Somali citizens in Kenya and for illegal aerial attacks on Gedo region that killed dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children.

Many Somalis and Kenyans saw Raila’s policies as just a continuation of President Uhuru’s. The Kenyan leader has fallen out with Ruto, his deputy, and opted to support Raila’s campaign to succeed him, a gamble that didn’t go well and eventually left both of them with egg on their faces.

The relationship between President Uhuru and Ruto is so fraught that the incumbent hasn’t yet congratulated his possible successor.

In his address, Uhuru, who didn’t even mention Ruto’s name, indirectly attacked the Supreme Court for a lack of “correspondence” and “coherence,” urging Kenyans to ask themselves “whether truth has been coherent from one election to another.”

“Can our institutions rule one way in one election, and another way in another election without scrutiny,” he asked.

“True beliefs and true judgements must correspond to the actual state of affairs, but do our constitutional institutions meet this threshold,” he asked once more.

Despite his visible displeasure with the Supreme Court’s decision, yet Uhuru called on Kenyans to respect institutions that “midwife our new leaders,” but to “constantly put them under scrutiny, for this is the civic duty of every single Kenyan”. He also urged Kenyans to “constantly put the truth presented by constitutional institutions to [the] test.”

The Kenyan court examined nine issues raised by the Raila-led petitioners, including whether the electoral body’s technology met the standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency or whether irregularities and illegalities that happened during the election affected the final result of the presidential vote.

“The Court found that the illegalities and irregularities pointed out by the petitioners were not of such magnitude as to affect the final result of the presidential election,” said the Court.

In his statement, Raila said the judgment was not the “end of our movement.”

“In fact,” he said, “it inspires us to redouble our efforts to transform this country into a prosperous democracy where each and every Kenyan can find their full belonging.”

He thanked his “supporters and Kenyans across the country for standing with us.”

“We will be communicating in the near future on our plans to continue our struggle for transparency, accountability and democracy,” he said.