TheCable

With slightly more than 98 percent of votes, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of Thursday repeat presidential election.

Wafula Chebukati, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman, made this known on Monday.

Chebukati said the repeat presidential poll was free and fair.

He said the turnout for the vote, which was boycotted by opposition leader Raila Odinga, was just under 39 percent of the 19.6 million registered voters.

“I’m satisfied that we were able to meet these conditions that have enabled the commission to deliver … a free, fair and credible election,” he said.

NAN reports that riot police had earlier fired teargas at opposition supporters in a slum in Kenya’s capital on Monday, as the country awaited official confirmation of a landslide win for incumbent Kenyatta in re-run election.

Supporters of the main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, have already branded the election a farce – he boycotted last week’s vote which was held after the Supreme Court annulled the original August poll citing procedural irregularities.

Protesters gathered in Nairobi’s Kawangware slum, trying to block a visit from Interior Minister Fred Matiang‘i, witnesses said, hours before the expected announcement of the results.

On Monday, the US said Washington was “profoundly concerned” by the outbreaks of violence since the October 26 vote.

Results from 266 out of 291 constituencies displayed at the national tallying center showed Kenyatta winning 98 percent of the vote.

The electoral commission said 7,616,217 valid votes were cast, representing a turnout of 42.36 percent in areas where polls opened.

Protests by Odinga’s supporters prevented polling stations from opening in 25 constituencies. If those constituencies are included, turnout dropped to 38.84 percent of 19,611,423 registered voters.

The election commission said poor security prevented them from holding the vote in those areas, but that since it would not “materially affect” the result, the final announcement could go ahead.

Odinga pulled out of the vote, saying the election commission had failed to institute reforms to prevent the kind of “illegalities and irregularities” that scuppered Kenyatta’s win in the August vote.