After Ruto’s win, Azimio should look for an alternative pastime

The August 9 General Election was the most transparent in Kenya’s history.

It is one in which every presidential vote that was cast can be accounted for, courtesy of the Kiems kits and the electronic transmission of the results.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) made it even more novel by uploading the 46,229 presidential election result forms on its portal.

As a result, many institutions and individuals tallied the results and agreed on the outcome – that President-elect William Ruto had not only won but also crossed the magical 50 per cent threshold of the vote.

Even though the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance Coalition confidently claimed victory, it was astounding that they did not make reference to the results in the IEBC portal.

Violent scenes 

More evidence of Azimio defeat would become evident in the succeeding days at the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya.

The violent scenes during verification of the results gave the game away further, especially when none other than the Azimio chief presidential agent called the venue “a crime scene”.

But last Monday was the day of infamy when IEBC chair and presidential election returning officer Wafula Chebukati announced the results.

Azimio was dead-set on blocking the declaration of the winner. It was a scene worse than a similar attempt by ODM in the 2007 election.

The extent of Dr Ruto’s win is self-evident. He demolished Jubilee, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party, to smithereens.

The party that ruled the roost five years ago in Mt Kenya and Rift Valley regions – the two vote-rich bastions in the country – now cannot even stand or is, at best, wobbling.

The extent of the massacre is evident in the party’s former backyard in the mountain.

Of the 60 constituencies in the 10 counties of Mt Kenya, Jubilee has zero governors, senators and women representatives, and only five MPs. 

In Kiambu, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s home, Jubilee has only five of 62 members of the county assembly.

And in Gatundu South, where he was once MP, Jubilee netted only one ward seat.

Mountain 'Hoax'

But what flopped spectacularly was Azimio’s out-of-tune song that their candidate had climbed the mountain.

The song went that Mr Raila Odinga would get 40 per cent of the region’s votes.

But a scan around the snow-capped summit tells a different story of Dr Ruto’s far and wide victory. Mr Odinga scored a low of between nine and 25 per cent.

In Tharaka-Nithi, Azimio got nine per cent of the vote and 14 per cent in Embu and Kirinyaga counties. 

In Nyeri, the maths ended at 15 per cent, Murang’a (17 per cent), Nyandarua and Meru (20 per cent) and Kiambu (25 per cent).

It was clear from day one that each political formation in the election understood that the poll would be won or lost in Mt Kenya.

And this best explains the reason Azimio had no qualms abandoning a more dependable Mr Kalonzo Musyoka for Ms Martha Karua as running mate to Mr Odinga.

Cemented support

In the vote-rich counties of the north and south Rift Valley, Dr Ruto cemented his support.

In Elgeyo-Marakwet County, he received a whopping 96 per cent of the cast ballots.

The scores in Kericho and Bomet were equally stomping at 95 per cent, while in cosmopolitan Uasin Gishu, the President-elect won 76 per cent of the vote. His vote in Baringo was a huge 80 per cent.

Even where Mr Odinga won, Dr Ruto’s showing was strong and solid. Take Narok County.

Mr Odinga was ahead with 51 per cent against the President-elect’s 48 per cent.

The Azimio candidate had 54 per cent of the vote in Tana River County, while the UDA leader got 44 per cent.

Odinga’s strongholds 

Meanwhile, Dr Ruto also yanked many chunks from Azimio presidential candidate Odinga’s former strongholds.

Take Bungoma, a county that voted for Mr Odinga wholesomely in 2013 and 2017.

Twelve days ago, the tables turned and Dr Ruto received a resounding 63 per cent of the vote – 255,000 against Mr Odinga’s 145,000.

In Mombasa, Dr Ruto got many times more votes than any opinion poll – real and cooked – could have anticipated.

He received a ringing 113,000 votes or 41 per cent to Mr Odinga’s 161,000. Five years ago, Jubilee, the President-elect’s former party, was a pariah in the county and did not win any of the six elective seats. Now, UDA won four MCAs and the MP for Nyali Constituency.

In Ukambani, another of Mr Odinga’s bastion through Mr Musyoka, Dr Ruto recorded very improved numbers from what his former party Jubilee used to get.

He received 27 per cent of the votes in Kitui, 24 per cent in Machakos and 20 per cent in Makueni. Yet this was in Azimio’s second-largest basket after the Nyanza region.

Dr Ruto has, therefore, won this election fair and square, and in a transparent manner.

While it is Azimio’s right to take its election dissatisfaction to the Supreme Court, the stars are not as easily aligned as they might probably have been in 2017.

Then, more than 10,000 presidential result Forms 34A had not been electronically transmitted to the national tallying centre by the time the suit was filed.

This was against the Court of Appeal judgment of earlier that year.

And the court was firm that it impugned the election on lack of transmission and verification.

This time, the IEBC was so thorough on the two-step requirement that Kenyans complained all of last week that Mr Chebukati had taken too long to declare the winner.

Mr Buku works in the William Ruto presidential campaign; [email protected]