Then President Uhuru Kenyatta and the late former ODM leader Raila Odinga at the KICC in Nairobi during the Jubilee Party's National Delegates Conference on February 26, 2022.

📋 Breaking It Down

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s declaration that he still believes the late Raila Odinga won the 2022 presidential election has reopened a bitter political dispute, putting him on a collision course with President William Ruto’s camp and forcing ODM to confront fresh questions about the events surrounding the disputed election.

Mr Kenyatta’s intervention has triggered a fresh exchange between the former president, President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA), leaders who worked with Mr Odinga and members of the late opposition chief’s family, with the 2022 election once again becoming a fault line as parties prepare for the 2027 General Election.

Speaking at Jubilee Party headquarters in Nairobi on Tuesday, Mr Kenyatta said he remained convinced that Mr Odinga had won the election.

📌 What You Need to Know

“We did everything to help Baba become the President of the Republic of Kenya. He got the votes, and to this day I know that he is the one who won those votes. We know how things happened, and we do not want it to happen that way again,” Mr Kenyatta said.

He questioned how the political formation supporting Mr Odinga could have performed strongly in parliamentary and gubernatorial elections but failed to secure the presidency.

The intervention has put Mr Kenyatta at the centre of a renewed debate over the events surrounding the August 9, 2022 election, despite the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declaring Dr Ruto the winner with 7,176,141 votes (50.49 per cent), against Mr Odinga’s 6,942,930 votes (48.85 per cent).

The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the consolidated petitions challenging the presidential result on September 5, 2022, upholding Dr Ruto’s election.

It is this gap between the constitutional record and Mr Kenyatta’s personal conviction that has now become the centre of the political argument.

ODM leader Oburu Oginga said Mr Kenyatta’s statement confirmed what his party had believed at the time but raised questions about the former president’s conduct after the election.

📰 Source: Nation Africa