NAIROBI, Kenya—Opposition leader Raila Odinga, declared the loser of last week’s presidential election in Kenya, rejected the results Tuesday and vowed to challenge William Ruto’s victory in court.
Mr. Odinga’s move risked throwing the bitterly fought race into crisis and raised fears Kenya could again face the partisan and ethnic violence that left some 1,100 people dead after disputed elections in 2007. In that race, Messrs. Odinga and Ruto ran on the same opposition ticket and their supporters spent months fighting backers of then-President Mwai Kibaki.
This time, Mr. Odinga had the endorsement of Kenya’s outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who, in an unusual twist, had turned his back on his own deputy, Mr. Ruto.
A police spokesman said there were no major incidents in Nairobi or other large Kenyan cities Tuesday. Odinga supporters had clashed with officers overnight, following the announcement by the national electoral commission that Mr. Ruto had won the Aug. 9 vote.
In a news conference Tuesday, the 77-year-old Mr. Odinga accused the chairman of the commission of manipulating the vote tally and said he would challenge Mr. Ruto’s victory in court. After Kenya’s last election, in 2017, Mr. Odinga got the Supreme Court to annul the first round of voting, only to lose again in the rerun. Dozens of protesters were killed by police during those elections.
“What we saw yesterday was a travesty and a blatant disregard of the constitution and the laws of Kenya,” Mr. Odinga said, while urging his supporters to stay calm. “The terrible memories of the aftermath of the 2007 elections are still fresh in our minds,” he added.
Barricades set up by supporters of Raila Odinga in his stronghold of Kisumu, Kenya.
Photo: yasuyoshi chiba/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Shortly before Mr. Odinga’s statement, four of the seven members of the electoral commission repeated their concerns over the final tally and accused the commission’s chairman, Wafula Chebukati, of hiding return data from other commissioners. An electoral commission spokesman said Mr. Chebukati wasn’t available to comment.
On Monday, after six days of counting votes, Mr. Chebukati declared Mr. Ruto the winner by a margin of 50.5% to 48.9%, with two minor candidates receiving the remainder.
Kipchumba Murkomen, a member of the Ruto campaign team, said Tuesday anyone could confirm the announced results from polling-station reports that the electoral commission had published online.
To contest the results, Mr. Odinga must file suit with the Supreme Court within seven days of the results announcement, and the court must issue a ruling within 14 days.
International and Kenyan election observers praised the voting itself as largely peaceful and the counting process as transparent. Posting results online “greatly enhanced transparency and accountability of the tabulation process and was a notable improvement over past elections,” a joint U.S. observer mission from the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute concluded.
Police reported a few outbreaks of violence immediately following the announcement of Mr. Ruto’s win, including protests in the Odinga stronghold of Kisumu, where police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators. In Nairobi’s Kibera slum, gunfire rang out as police confronted crowds of angry Odinga supporters who burned tires and blocked roads, witnesses said.
An elections official who went missing on Friday after stepping out of a tallying center was found dead on Monday, police said.
Kenya is a key U.S. ally in East Africa, providing troops and facilities for the long war against al-Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in neighboring Somalia. The country is also considered a rock of stability and economic potential at a time when some of its neighbors are embroiled in conflict.
“We ask all political party leaders to continue to urge their supporters to remain peaceful and refrain from violence during the electoral process,” the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi said late Monday.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com and Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
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