Kenya's Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected challenges to the official results of the presidential election and upheld Deputy President William Ruto's narrow win in East Africa's most stable democracy.
Opposition candidate Raila Odinga had alleged irregularities in the otherwise peaceful Aug. 9 election that was marked by last-minute drama when the electoral commission split and traded accusations of misconduct.
The Supreme Court shocked Kenyans in the previous election in 2017 by overturning the results of the presidential election, a first in Africa, and ordered a new vote after Odinga filed a challenge. He then boycotted that new election. The election had been seen as the country's most transparent, with results from tens of thousands of polling stations posted online within hours of the vote for Kenyans to follow the tally themselves. Such reforms were in part the result of Odinga's previous election challenge.
Kenyans now wait to see whether any anger over the election will be channeled into the streets in a country with a history of sometimes deadly political violence. The election had one of the lowest turnouts -- under 65% -- in Kenya's history of multiparty democracy. "We also congratulate the people of Kenya on the conclusion of a peaceful electoral process," Blinken said in a statement Monday.
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