Four running for president in Kenya’s election

Opposition chief, Raila Odinga. File photograph

• Kenya solely has 4 candidates in its presidential race – the smallest quantity because the early Nineties. 
• Among the many candidates are present deputy president William Ruto and veteran politician Raila Odinga. 
• All of the candidates save for Ruto have chosen girls as their working mates. 

4 candidates are within the working to turn out to be Kenya’s subsequent president, together with present deputy president William Ruto and veteran politician Raila Odinga, the electoral physique mentioned.

It’s the smallest variety of candidates to be cleared to face for the highest job within the East African powerhouse since multiparty democracy within the early Nineties.

Solely 4 candidates “met the requisite constitutional and statutory necessities” from a shortlist of 17, the Impartial Electoral and Boundaries Fee (IEBC) mentioned in a press release late Monday.

Apart from Ruto and Odinga, the opposite candidates vying for the presidency within the August 9 vote embrace attorneys David Mwaure and George Wajackoyah – a former spy who as soon as went into exile in Britain.

READ | Kenya presidential contenders choose rights champion, political campaigner as working mates

Greater than 50 aspirants had expressed curiosity in standing to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta, who should stand down after serving the utmost of two five-year phrases.

This yr’s contest is shaping as much as be a two-horse race between the president’s erstwhile ally Ruto and 77-year-old former opposition chief Odinga, who now has the backing of Kenyatta.

Wajackoyah, an eccentric lawyer, is working on a pledge to increase the chief, cut back the working week to 4 days and legalise marijuana.

Mwaure, who had proven curiosity in working in 2013 however later shelved his candidacy, has pledged to crack down on corruption, a hot-button difficulty in Kenya.

Girls working mates 

All of the candidates save for Ruto have chosen girls as their working mates, which, ought to they win, would open the door to Kenya’s first feminine deputy president.

A mainstay of Kenyan politics, Odinga stays vastly well-liked regardless of shedding 4 photographs on the presidency.

However his fiery anti-establishment picture took a knock following his 2018 reconciliation with Kenyatta.

Ruto, 55, was initially anointed by Kenyatta as his successor however discovered himself marginalised after the 2018 pact between the president and former foe Odinga.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (R) and Vice President William Ruto

AFP Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

A former agriculture minister, Ruto has lambasted Kenyatta over his financial insurance policies together with the nation’s big debt burden, vowing to undo them if elected.

With its various inhabitants and ethnic voting blocs, elections in Kenya have typically been marred by violence.

Each Kenyatta and Ruto had been indicted by the Worldwide Legal Court docket on crimes towards humanity costs for his or her alleged function in orchestrating post-poll violence in 2007 that value greater than 1,100 lives.

The case collapsed in 2016 after the court docket declared a mistrial citing troubling incidences of witness interference.

After post-election combating in 2017 left dozens lifeless, Kenyatta and Odinga introduced a rapprochement, saying they hoped to finish repeated cycles of poll-related violence.

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