Kenyans will on Tuesday, August 9 head to polling centres to elect their next President replacing incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta who has finished his constitutionally-allowed two terms. Data indicates that there are over 22.1 million voters who will be casting their ballots in the elections that will see Kenyans also vote for senators, governors, members of parliament and members of county assemblies. The Tuesday highly anticipated vote will feature four candidates battling for the top office, including the current Deputy President William Ruto. Others are former prime minister Raila Odinga who will be having a go at the presidency of the fifth time. The two are frontrunners according to several opinion polls that were conducted ahead of the election. The other contestants are George Wajackoyah and David Mwaure. In an interview with The New Times, the secretary general of the Association of Kenyans in Rwanda, Onesmus Marete broke down the numbers of what is required for the four men to enter the President’s office. “Preliminary results are by law expected within seven days after election and the winner should be 50 percent plus one. Other than this threshold, the Constitution also requires that a contender must secure at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in each of at least 24 counties,” he said. Kenyan laws provide that in case contenders don’t garner the required percentages, a rerun among the two leading contenders is organised. Commentators say, the turnout plays a critical role as the past two elections have shown. In 2013, the turnout was 85.91 per cent while in the cancelled 2017 polls, the turnout was 79.5 per cent. The repeat election had a 38.84 per cent turnout after Odinga boycotted the process. In 2013, Uhuru and his running mate Ruto garnered 6,173,433 votes against Odingas 5,340,546 votes, avoiding a runoff by 8,400 votes. There are currently 10,442 Kenyans in the diaspora who will be casting their votes. Among those, 1090 are in Rwanda and will be voting from their High Commission’s office in Kigali. “The Diaspora will be voting for the presidency only. Here in Rwanda, we have gone through all required processes to ensure smooth elections. Officers of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) have been in Rwanda preparing for the elections. There is quite an excitement because of the change. We will be getting a new president and we are looking forward to that,” said Marete. In a recent interview with The New Times, the Kenyan acting high commissioner to Rwanda, Philip Mundia Githiora also pointed out that they don’t expect any disruptions. “Today, there is political maturity and over the course of years, Kenya has built seamless systems,” he said.
