Timi Frank Congratulates Kenya’s President-elect, William Ruto
- Prominent Nigerian politician, Comrade Timi Frank has congratulated the president-elect of Kenya, Mr. William Ruto
- Comrade Frank also called on President Uhuru Kenyatta and his ally, Raila Odinga to congratulate Ruto
- According to Comrade Frank, anyone aggrieved about the election should approach the courts in the country
FCT, Abuja - A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has congratulated the president-elect of Kenya, Mr. William Ruto.
Comrade Frank in a statement sent to Legit.ng on Wednesday, August 17 lauded the people of Kenya for their peaceful disposition during the presidential election and for voting for change in the East African country.
Source: Twitter
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain also called on Kenyans to stand with Ruto, saying his ascendancy represents a complete break from the established system of political succession in the country which had appeared to be restricted to the offspring of former leaders.
Frank who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and Middle East, also called on the outgoing president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, to urgently initiate a peace and reconciliation process among the key actors during the election.
PAY ATTENTION: Follow us on Instagram - get the most important news directly in your favourite app!
He urged Kenyatta to follow the precedent laid by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria in 2015 by officially congratulating Ruto.
He said:
“The people of Kenya have decided that the ‘Hustler-In-Chief-of-Kenya’ should be their next president through the ballot. Therefore, let the will of the people prevail.
“Kenya needs peace to move forward and President Kenyatta has a great role to play in bringing parties in the electoral conflict to the discussion table just like he did during the last election whose results were highly disputed.
“On his part, the president-elect, must be magnanimous in victory by immediately reaching out to his opponents with assurances of his readiness to work with them in the overall interest of peace and development of the country.
“We equally call on the presidential candidate of the opposition political party, Raila Odinga, to as a matter of necessity call his supporters to order in the interest of peace for the generality of Kenyans.
“Let him approach the appropriate court to challenge the results of the poll if he feels there were irregularities during the electoral process that may have denied him victory.”
Frank also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria to borrow a leaf from its Kenyan counterpart.
William Ruto the winner
Kenya's electoral body's chairman, Wafula Chebukati, declared Ruto as the duly elected president after he amassed 7,176,141 votes.
Ruto's vote final tally garnered 50.49% meeting the requisite threshold for his declaration as the duly elected president.
He additionally garnered 25% of all the votes in 39 counties thus meeting the constitutional threshold to be declared the winner of the election.
Protests erupt in parts of Kenya over Ruto's victory
Meanwhile, violent protests erupted in Odinga's stronghold of Kisumu and parts of Nairobi after he lost his fifth bid for Kenya's presidency on Monday, August 15 with angry demonstrators alleging vote-rigging as police fired tear gas to disperse them.
Odinga, 77, a veteran opposition politician now backed by the ruling party, has not spoken in public since the results were announced, but has accused his opponents of cheating him out of victory in the 2007, 2013 and 2017 presidential elections.
As news of the results filtered through to Kisumu, large numbers of protesters congregated on a roundabout in the lakeside city, throwing stones and setting tyres on fire as they blocked roads with broken rocks.
Source: Legit.ng
