Ruto Knows He Did Not Win Elections- Raila

Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga has claimed that President-elect William Ruto had no idea that he won the presidential elections on Tuesday, August 9, 2022.

He spoke for the first time on Monday, August 29 regarding the phone call he had with Ruto hours before Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati announced the results on Monday, August 15 at the Bomas of Kenya.

According to him, Ruto had reached out to him just to check on him and that they had agreed to meet each other to talk about the election results and that they would hold talks after that.

"William Ruto called me before the results were announced and just greeted me and we said to ourselves at that time, because we didn’t know what was going to come out, that we would meet and talk," Raila said in an interview with BBC News Africa.

However, despite agreeing that they would talk after Chebukati's declaration, Raila revealed that the meeting never took place.

In addition, he maintained that Ruto did not win the elections through a transparent, credible and fair process, noting that he should have been the president-elect, a matter he noted Ruto also knows.

"We’ve not met, neither have we talked since that time because I don’t believe that he is the president-elect. I think that I should be the president-elect.

"And he knows it, deep in his heart that he did not win these elections, but a beneficiary of electoral fraud," he alleged.

After he received the presidential election winner's certificate at the National Tallying Centre, Ruto staged a joint interview with a number of journalists from local and international media houses whereby he spoke about that phone call.

He revisited the handshake statement Raila had earlier announced during the Azimio mega rally at Kasarani, which he countered by stating that he would not be willing to go through the same agreement Raila had with the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2018.

"Maybe I should disclose that this morning I called my opponent, Raila Odinga and we agreed regardless of the outcome of the elections, we should have a conversation.

"He had offered in his statement in Kasarani that he would be available for a handshake and I said that I will be available for us to have a cup of tea because there are areas we can agree on moving the country forward," he added.