Kenya Will Work to Ensure Security in East African Region, William Ruto Says

On September 5, Kenya’s Supreme Court upheld Vice President William Ruto as the presidential election winner. Ruto won with 50.49% of the vote, narrowly defeating his rival Raila Odinga, who has unsuccessfully stood for election as president of Kenya five times.

Kenya's President-elect William Ruto has announced plans to scale up its country’s involvement in regional peace initiatives, including in Somalia, which has been in a state of civil war for decades.

"Somalia is a difficult nut to crack," Ruto told CNN, referring to the long-running war, which has led to the spread of Islamist extremism to neighboring countries and resulted in a destabilization of the region.

At the same time, Ruto argued that his international partners shouldn’t expect "a big shift" in Kenya's foreign policy.

In order to ensure security on its borders, Kenya is currently providing military support to Somali government forces operating against Al-Shabaab militants. Kenya is also acting as a mediator in disputes and disagreements between various Somali groups and administrations and is participating in conferences aimed at drawing the attention of the international community to this longstanding problem.

The ongoing situation has resulted in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp hosting hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing the war. The Dadaab camp is currently one of the largest in the world, hosting over 220,000 registered refugees.

As for the Kenyan people, Ruto expressed gratitude for electing him despite all the difficulties, such as the split in the country's electoral commission, when 4 of 7 total commissioners declared the elections rigged and refused to sign the final presidential electoral form.

Eventually, the Supreme Court of Kenya rejected the claim of Ruto's main rival, Raila Odinga, who insisted that the vote had been accompanied by numerous incidents of fraud and violations.

The court found no evidence of an incorrect count of the votes and no convincing evidence of alleged failures in the computer systems of the national electoral commission or interruptions in data transmission over the Internet.