Kenya elections

Analysts say result too close to call, with poor turnout amid cost of living crisis and soaring unemployment.

Ruto has run his platform on the economic empowerment of the poor, promising to set up a fund for small businesses. Odinga has promised quality healthcare for all and social support for the poor, including a £40 monthly stipend for the most vulnerable households. To win the elections in the first round, the candidates would need to secure more than 50% of total votes cast, and at least 25% of votes from 24 of Kenya’s 47 counties.

Kenya was calm Wednesday as the nation awaited results from the country's presidential election. The electoral commission says Kenyans will have to wait a ...

You can log in, verify what’s there and the only assurance we are making is that the information in the public portal is the same results the commission will use to complete this process,” said Chebukati. The commission must go through more than 46,000 forms before making the final result. If no candidate meets that goal, the electoral commission will schedule a runoff vote.

Ms. Sawlani is a journalist who writes often about politics and society in East Africa. NAIROBI, Kenya — It was a sight to behold. Scores of young ...

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. In Nigeria, the young are at the forefront of a movement against police brutality that erupted with the enormous #EndSARS protests in 2020. Still, young people in the country have found other ways to engage in political work — in community projects, mutual aid programs and social centers. The cost of food and fuel, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has risen sharply. With such a tiny number of young people making the cut in electoral politics, who could blame the young, without representation or recourse to a more responsive state, for turning away? The country regularly ranks poorly in corruption scores, and the two leading parties have members accused of graft and corruption in their ranks. In the absence of substantial policy, there could at least be symbolic representation of the young. In the eyes of many young people, expecting change from such stalwarts of the status quo is a fool’s errand. If the choice is a false one, they reason, better to refuse it altogether than collude in a fiction. The actual enthusiasm of the country’s young, in contrast to the contrived air of engagement, is rather cooler. They sit at the apex of a system that has failed to counter endemic youth unemployment, skyrocketing debt and a rising cost of living. The two leading candidates in Kenya’s election, William Ruto and Raila Odinga, who are neck and neck in the early count, are both established members of the political class.