Kenya's opposition leader rejects election result

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday rejected results of the presidential election which he was declared to have lost.

Addressing a news conference in the capital Nairobi, Odinga said the "flawed" results were a setback to democracy in the country.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I want to repeat that we totally and without reservations, reject the presidential results announced yesterday by Mr Chebukati,” Odinga said.

Kenya’s electoral commission chair Wafula Chebukati on Monday declared William Samoei Ruto the fifth president of the East African nation.

Also on Tuesday, four Kenyan electoral officials who disowned election results said errors in the final tally have the capacity of swinging the votes.

“The aggregation of the percentages of the results scored by the four presidential candidates who were on the ballot as declared by Mr Chebukati presented to us a mathematical absurdity that defies logic," Kenya’s electoral commission vice chair Juliana Cherera said.

“0.01% translates to approximately 142,000 votes, which would make a significant difference in the final result. We, therefore, declined to take ownership of the said results,” she added.

In a related development on Tuesday, police in Kenya said that they recovered the body of an electoral officer who disappeared during the vote counting after last week's election.

Protests broke out in key opposition strongholds across Kenya after the electoral commission announced Ruto as the fifth president of the country on Monday. Ruto, who was announced president-elect, pledged to respect the law if the opposition challenges the election result in the courts.