Why Kenya Has Been Rocked by Opposition Protests

Raila Odinga has run for Kenya’s presidency five times. In each case, he alleged that he was cheated of victory. He came within a whisker of getting the top job in 2022 but was edged out by William Ruto, whose win was upheld by the nation’s highest court. Odinga now says he has proof the contest was rigged, and he’s called on supporters to stage twice-weekly protests until Ruto’s victory is nullified. While he has scant chance of succeeding, the upheaval is spooking investors and undermining Ruto’s plans to fire up East Africa’s largest economy.

He says he has information from a whistleblower that the results were tampered with and cites a list of voting tallies from all the polling stations, a number of which differ from those released by the electoral commission, that shows he won. He wants the results of the August 2022 elections to be annulled, which would necessitate a fresh vote. He also wants changes to how the commissioners who oversee the electoral agency are selected. The Supreme Court has said it uncovered no credible evidence that the election was compromised, and it’s unlikely to reopen the case. The court proved its independence in 2017, when it invalidated Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election as president and ordered a rerun. But Odinga, the second-place finisher, boycotted the redo because he said the conditions weren’t in place for a fair contest.