Ekuru Aukot concedes defeat, congratulates President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta

Ekuru Aukot with an IEBC official when he visited the National Tallying Center at the Bomas of Kenya on August 9, 2017. (Photo: Courtesy)

Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot has conceded defeat after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared Uhuru Kenyatta as winner in the October 26 repeat presidential poll.

Dr Aukot asked President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta to start uniting Kenyans following a long season of divisive politics.

He also challenged other presidential candidates to accept the loss and move on.

The Thirdway Alliance leader added that as the official opposition leader, he would Keep Uhuru’s administration in check.

“Today we take our role as the official opposition and to President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta congratulations, we shall put your government into check,” Aukot posted on Twitter.

Today we take our role as the official opposition and to President @UKenyatta congratulations ,we shall put your government into check .

— #FreshElections! (@EAukot) October 30, 2017

Ekuru Aukot’s full statement:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxrb6oJXBrk8b19yanMybVotekk/view

 

Ekuru Aukot says Kenya needs healing

Aukot said Kenya needs urgent healing beyond the 2017 election.

"We have been consistent in our quest for justice and rule of law. We believe that we have been able to shape how politics is done in Kenya, albeit in our own small way," he said in a statement to newsrooms.

On the just concluded repeat presidential poll, Aukot said; "we fought to be included in this repeat election. I want to thank NASA for supporting us. Our decision to participate was based on the fact that the Thirdway Alliance has always advocated that the Constitution of Kenya must be safeguarded and followed at all times." 

He said they had misgivings on IEBC's preparedness but they decided to participate in the fresh elections as it was the only way to avoid anarchy in the country. "We disagree with any proposals that the elections were to be boycotted. To abandon the repeat election would have caused a constitutional crisis... We strongly believe that the supreme law of the land, and not the wishes of a tiny minority, must guide our elections now and in future." 

In the repeat election, 25 constituencies in Nyanza did not participate in the poll. On Monday, IEBC vice chairperson Consolata Nkatha said areas that did not participate in the election would not affect the final result. 

Out of 266 constituencies that submitted results, Uhuru got 7,483,895 votes. This was only 719,395 votes less of the 8,203,290 votes he got on August 8.