Kenyans voted on Tuesday 8 this week to elect a president that will lead them for the next five years. Over 19.7 million voters were eligible to vote. A presidential winner is required to gain more than 50 percent of the cast votes to win. Opinion polls conducted this year showed that president uhuru kenyatta of the Jubilee party and opposition leader Raila Odinga of the Orange party would be the likely winner of the elections. With 96 percent of the preliminary results already announced, President Uhuru Kenyatta has so far garnered 54.3 percent of the votes cast while the opposition leader has attained 44.8 percent.

Six other candidates who were in the race have garnered less than one percent of the votes cast.

The opposition has disputed the votes

Even before all the preliminary results were announced, the opposition has disputed the outcome of the elections and called the electoral commission a fraud. The opposition accuses the commission of not transmitting results collected from polling stations on the ground. The opposition has also accused some unnamed members working for the government of hacking the electoral commission's voter tally system and manipulating results in favor of President Uhuru Kenyatta. The opposition link the murder of former senior Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) I.T expert to the hacking scheme.

The opposition says that hackers tortured the former employee to acquire vital information such as passwords and server location of the electoral commission to gain access to the commission's systems. The IT staff was them murdered in a crime that was perceived to be an extra judicial killing.

The West's involvement in the elections

Former secretary of state John Kerry arrived in Kenya on Monday this week. He met the head of the electoral commission. Kerry is believed to have arrived in the country to lead the U.S delegation of observers as well as act as the electoral observer for Obama. Kenya's leading newspaper Daily Nation quoted Kerry to have said that Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is happy with Kenya's electoral commission's preparedness.

The Daily nation also stated that over 5,000 individuals are observing the elections. 25 international groups mostly from The West are also observing the elections. Former U.S president also sent a press statement on August the 7, a day before the elections and urged Kenyans to reject violence and incitement.

Incidents of violence witnessed

Incidences of violence have been recorded in the outskirts of Kenya's capital city Nairobi.

The police also confronted protesters in the west of the country which is an opposition stronghold and the birthplace of Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. 2 deaths have been recorded so far according to the Washington Post. No major incidences of violence have been witnessed so far as the public waits for the opposition's next move and the electoral commission's official presidential results.
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