As they nervously awaited the results of a close presidential campaign in which the two front-runners were neck and neck, Kenyans prayed for peace on Sunday.
According to figures from the election commission that included results from over 50% of the constituencies as of Sunday morning, Deputy President William Ruto had received 51.25 percent of the vote, reversing earlier gains for his major competitor Raila Odinga, who had 48.09 percent.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is under enormous pressure to conduct a fair election and announce results by August 16 after past polls triggered deadly violence and rigging allegations.
After political party representatives disrupted the process by screaming accusations of vote-rigging at one another, riot police were brought in and stationed overnight inside the commission’s heavily guarded tallying center in Nairobi, Kenya.
Wafula Chebukati, the chairman of the commission, previously charged party officials with stalling the tallying procedure by interrogating election workers needlessly.
The long wait has worn down Kenyans, and many of them are expecting that any disagreements over the outcome would be resolved amicably and legally.
A statement recommending restraint was released on Sunday by more than a dozen civil society organizations, labor unions, and the Kenyan chapters of Amnesty International and Transparency International.
“All political candidates, their supporters, and the general public are urged to practice caution. We must all refrain from inciting unrest that might easily become violent “The 14 organizations said as a group.
The election matched Ruto, who was widely expected to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta until his boss joined forces with old rival Odinga in a spectacular change of political allegiance, against Odinga, a seasoned opposition leader now supported by the ruling party.
Despite the outcome of the election, both candidates have promised to remain quiet, as many Kenyans still have recent memories of the post-election violence in 2007–08 and in 2017.
The Peace Prayer of St. Francis’ opening verses were repeated by Odinga, 77, at a church service in Nairobi on Sunday. He added: “I want to become an instrument to promote peace, to heal, to unify and keep the hope alive in our country.”
The 81-year-old bishop Washington Ogonyo Ngede urged his flock to pray for a peaceful resolution as congregation members in Odinga’s stronghold of Kisumu did as well “Keep politics from dividing us. We must continue to be one.”
Ngede, a close friend of the Odinga family for his entire life, stated: “Because presidents come and go but the land of Kenya lives forever.”
He uttered the words “Let us have peace” to the applause and ululations of the 300 worshipers there.
Six elections were held in Kenya, and voters choose a new president as well as senators, governors, legislators, women representatives, and over 1,500 county leaders.
Along with former spy George Wajackoyah, lawyer David Mwaure was one of the four contenders for the presidency. On Sunday, Mwaure conceded and endorsed Ruto, whose party had won a crucial race for governor when Johnson Sakaja took control of Nairobi, the richest city in Kenya.
