KENYA ELECTIONS: Odinga and Ruto neck to neck

📌 KENYA PROVISIONAL RESULTS 4pm
✳ Odinga- 49.78% ➡ 6,348,977 Votes
✳ Ruto- 49.54% ➡ 6,317,886 Votes
✳ Wajackoyah- 0.45% ➡ 56,876 Votes
✳ Waihiga- 0.23% ➡ 29,710 Votes

Nairobi, Kenya | THE INDEPENDENT, XINHUA & URN | Provisional results from vote counting in Kenya’s general election indicate Raila Odinga and Ruto may fail to get the minimum needed to win the first round outright. The winner of presidential elections needs 50% + 1 of the valid votes cast and at least 25% votes in more than 24 counties

With 12,794,403 of about 14 million votes counted from 39,209 of 46,229 polling stations reporting, both Odinga and Ruto were stuck at 49%, hours before the final tentative results are announced.  The election body IEBC is however the only one authorized to declare the final result.

The Daily Nation tally at 4pm indicated veteran opposition leader Odinga had 6,348,977 of the votes so far counted, just about 20 votes ahead of Deputy President William Ruto at 317,886.

Kenya on Tuesday held its seventh general election since the introduction of multiparty politics in 1991 where  voters lined to elect the country’s fifth president, members of the National Assembly, senators, and county governors.

Kenyans are voting for 16,105 candidates, who are vying for a total of 1,879 elective positions.

The elections were hotly contested, with President Uhuru Kenyatta backing Azimio la Umoja (Resolution for Unity) One Kenya Coalition candidate Odinga. The President fell out with his deputy, Ruto of Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) Alliance. ■

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