The 2022 Kenyan general election was held on August 9, 2022, and resulted in the victory of William Ruto, the former Deputy President, over the opposition coalition led by Raila Odinga and backed by outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta. Ruto's victory represented a dramatic realignment of Kenya's political coalitions, wherein the Kikuyu-dominant Central Kenya vote that had supported Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013 and 2017 shifted to Ruto's Kenya Kwanza coalition, enabling the second-place Kalenjin politician to overtake the opposition Azimio coalition despite lacking traditional geographic bases of presidential power.
Ruto secured 50.49% of the presidential vote, narrowly exceeding the 50% threshold required to avoid a runoff, while Raila Odinga achieved 48.85%, placing him in second place with a margin of just 1.64 percentage points. The narrow margin meant that the 2022 election was once again contested in courts, with Raila mounting a Supreme Court petition challenging the results. However, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Raila's petition, upholding Ruto's victory and contrasting with the 2017 nullification that had overturned the incumbent's election.
The 2022 election was characterized as Kenya's most expensive election in the country's history, with both coalitions deploying substantial financial resources for campaigns and voter mobilization. The campaign was marked by the "hustler versus dynasty" framing, wherein Ruto positioned himself as representing ordinary Kenyans struggling economically while Raila was positioned as representing Kenya's elite political dynasties. This populist versus elite framing resonated sufficiently with voters to enable Ruto's victory despite Uhuru's explicit backing of the opposition.
The election also saw critical tensions within the IEBC as four commissioners dissented from the results announcement, echoing the 2017 experience of commission internal divisions regarding result validation. The dissenting commissioners, led by commissioner Justus Nyangaya, issued a public statement expressing concerns about the IEBC's result tabulation procedures and the reliability of the announced outcome. However, the dissent did not prevent result announcement, and the Supreme Court, in its subsequent petition hearing, upheld the IEBC's results despite the internal institutional concerns.
The 2022 election's impact on Kenya's political realignment was substantial. Uhuru Kenyatta's backing of the opposition Raila Odinga against his own Deputy President William Ruto represented a dramatic rupture within the Jubilee coalition that had dominated 2013 and 2017 politics. This elite schism meant that the historical Kikuyu-Kalenjin axis that had structured post-2010 politics fragmented, with Kikuyu voters dividing between Uhuru's Azimio coalition (backing Raila) and Ruto's Kenya Kwanza coalition. This regional fragmentation enabled Ruto's victory despite his lack of traditional geographic dominance.
The running mate selections again reflected gendered patterns of elite politics, with both Ruto (Rigathi Gachagua) and Raila (Martha Karua) selecting running mates, but neither coalition selecting female presidential candidates. However, Karua's selection as Raila's running mate was significant as the first female running mate nominee, representing potential advancement of gender representation at the highest levels even while the presidency itself remained exclusively male-dominated.
See Also
2022 Election Kenya Kwanza 2022 Election Azimio Coalition 2022 Election Hustler Narrative 2022 Election Results 2022 Election Uhuru Betrayal
Sources
- Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. (2022). 2022 General Elections: Official Results. Retrieved from https://www.iebc.or.ke/
- International Crisis Group. (2022). Kenya's 2022 Election: The Hustler's Victory and Political Realignment. Retrieved from https://www.crisisgroup.org/
- European Union Election Observation Mission. (2022). Kenya 2022 General Elections: Final Report. Retrieved from https://www.eueom.eu/