Raila Odinga should be appreciated for helping entrench key poll reforms

Raila Odinga celebrates when he won a presidential petition that challenged the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as the president-elect in 2017. [File, Standard]

On August 15, the electoral commission announced that Deputy President William Ruto had won the 2022 presidential election following a close, tense race. The commission gave the count as 50.49 per cent for Ruto against rival Raila Odinga's 48.85. This was immediately disputed by Raila's campaign and four of the seven electoral commissioners, who described the final tallying process as "opaque".

As he had done in 2013 and 2017, Raila petitioned the Supreme Court. He alleged several irregularities, including fraud, voter suppression and impunity by the commission's chair, Wafula Chebukati. He claimed that Chebukati had breached the Constitution and acted unilaterally.