Nairobi — Raila Odinga says he has accepted the Supreme Court verdict upholding the election of William Ruto as the 5th president of the Republic of Kenya but vowed to continue with the struggle “for accountability”.
In a statement soon after the verdict that dismissed his petition to overturn Ruto’s election, Raila said “we respect the opinion of the court although we vehemently disagree with their decision.”
Ruto’s victory was upheld in a unanimous decision of a seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome, dismissing all the 8 grounds raised by Raila and other petitioners.
In its decision, the Supreme Court said it was satisfied that the President-Elect attained the 50 percent plus one threshold and upheld his election.
The judges found that the petitioners did not provide a water-tight case in regard to the 50 percent plus one vote requirement.
“The president-elect attained 50%+1 of the total votes cast as evidenced by Forms,” she stated.
But Odinga who was trying his luck at the presidency for the fifth time said he “finds it incredible that the judges found against us on all the nine grounds and occasion resulted to unduly exaggerated language to refute our claims.”
Odinga mentioned that the move by the Supreme Court to throw out his petition and substantially upholding the victory of President Elect William Ruto doesn’t mean the end of the movement by Azimio proponents.
“This judgment is by no means the end of our movement, in fact it inspires us to redouble our efforts to transform this country into a prosperous democracy where each and every Kenyan can find their full belonging,” he said.
Nevertheless, the Orange Democratic Leader thanked his supporters for supporting his quest for presidency which he has unsuccessfully done for five times now.
“We thank our supporters and Kenyans across the country for standing with us. We will be communicating in the near future on our plans to continue our struggle for transparency, accountability and democracy,” Odinga noted.