NAIROBI: Kenya's Supreme Court on Monday upheld the August 9 election of William Ruto as president in a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Martha Koome said, throwing out a petition brought by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The Supreme Court of the East African country confirmed the result,saying it was legal.
There was no credible evidence of manipulation of the electronic voting system or the vote counting, court president Martha Koome said in Nairobi.
Runner-up Raila Odinga had complained that a corrupt process led to the narrow victory of his rival, Ruto.
The Electoral Commission had been divided regarding the result. Four of its seven members had refused to recognise the officially announced election result, although they had initially validated the individual results.
According to Koome, this shows that the electoral commission needs far-reaching reforms.
Election observers from the African Union and the East African Development Community did not find any irregularities during the vote.
With around 54 million inhabitants, Kenya is considered one of the most stable countries on the African continent.
However, past elections have seen unrest and violence. In 2008 more than 1,000 people died due to a wave of violence following the voting.
Violent incidents also occurred in 2013 and 2017. The main reason was tensions between the different ethnic groups.
Earlier, Kenyans anxiously awaited a Supreme Court ruling on petitions challenging the outcome of the August presidential election, with weeks of political uncertainty looming if the poll is annulled.
Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner of the tightly fought race, scraping to victory by a narrow margin of less than two percentage points against Raila Odinga, a veteran opposition politician now backed by the ruling party.
Odinga filed a petition to Kenya's top court last month, alleging fraud in the vote tallying process and claiming he had "enough evidence" to show he had in fact won the August 9 election, which ranks as one of Africa's most expensive polls.
"Judgment day," was the front-page headline in The Standard, while People Daily declared: "Moment of Truth".
Although voting day passed off peacefully, the results sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds and there are fears a drawn-out dispute may deepen widespread economic malaise and lead to violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.
"We have already wasted a lot of time and money so if we go back to election we will waste (even more) time and resources," said Anne Karanja, a fruit seller in the capital Nairobi.
"I voted but I feel like I can't vote again," she said echoing the frustration felt by many Kenyans. - Reuters/AFP
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