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President  Mnangagwa today congratulated Kenyan President-elect William Ruto, who beat his main contender Raila Odinga in a hotly contested poll.

This followed the declaration of Ruto as the fifth Kenyan President by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya (IEBC).

Ruto garnered 7 176 141 votes against Odinga, who got 6 942 930.

“Congratulations to @WilliamsRuto on his election as the next President of Kenya,” President Mnngagwa said in a tweet.

“I have no doubt he will serve his country, his people and our continent with distinction,” he added.

Information Publicity and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Nick Mangwana weighed in, tweeting, “So congratulations are in order for President-elect William Ruto.”

The other presidential candidates, David Mwaure of Agano Party garnered 31 987 votes representing 0,23 percent while George Wajackoyah of the Roots Party got 61 969 votes (0.44 percent).

Ruto, whose running mate was Rigathi Gacagua, contested the election on a Kenya Kwanza Alliance ticket, a bloc of political parties to which his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) belongs.

It was the fifth time that Odinga was running for the presidency, having first contested in 1997, and again in 2007, 2013 and 2017.

Kenya has a total of 22 million registered voters, of which only 14 million voted in the 2022 general election.

The Kenyan Constitution requires the winner of the presidential election to garner at least 50 percent plus one of the total votes cast, besides getting at least 25 percent of the votes in half of the 47 counties. – New Ziana