Nairobi — President-Elect William Ruto has showered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission with praises for what he described as clear efforts to raise the bar in the concluded August 9 General Election.
Speaking at Bomas of Kenya while making his victory speech, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leader said the decision by the electoral agency to make all the results public on its portal was a game changer in ensuring the polls are transparent.
"The hero of this election is the IEBC led by Wafula Chebukati. I say this with conviction that the IEBC amazed all of us. With the results in the public portal, all the servers were opened and for everybody, all you needed, is a simple calculator and you would have the results," said the President-Elect
He lauded Chebukati for his efforts to make the elections transparent.
"I want to say without any fear of contradiction, that one Wafula Chebukati is our hero. Soft-spoken but firm. I want to tell you Mr Chairman we are very proud that without informing any of us, you put all the results from all the polling stations on a public portal where every Kenyan could access," Ruto said.
The President-Elect expressed gratitude to Kenyans who participated in campaigns peacefully and the millions who turned up to vote.
He lauded Kenyans for being patient until the announcement of the results and for choosing to focus on issues rather than ethnicity in electing their preferred candidates.
"Specifically, I want to thank my fellow countrymen and women because we have raised the bar in this election. This election was much about the issues than the ethnic configuration that has always informed our elections," he said.
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He also thanked the religious leaders for their prayers which he said played a significant role in ensuring peaceful elections.
Deputy President William Ruto was declared President-Elect after sailing past the '50 per cent plus one' constitutional threshold that requires a winner in a presidential election to garner 50 per cent of votes cast and an additional vote to avoid a runoff.
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate garnered 7,176,141(50.49 per cent) votes beating his closest challenger, Azimio's Raila Odinga, who managed 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent).
Odinga, a veteran opposition leader, was making his fifth stab with the backing of the ruling Jubilee Party led by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati, who addressed the nation at 6pm, three hours after an earlier slated time, said Ruto also garnered 25 per cent of votes in twenty-four counties in line with the requirement to secure the threshold in half of the counties.
The two other presidential candidates -- Agano Party's David Mwaure and Roots Party's George Wajackoyah -- garnered 31,987 (0.23 per cent) and 61,969 (0.44 per cent) respectively.
