ODM Party Leader Oburu Oginga has asked former President Uhuru Kenyatta to explain why his government facilitated the transfer of power to President William Ruto, if he was under the impression that Raila Odinga had won the 2022 presidential election. Oburu posed the questions on Thursday, September 24, two days after Uhuru claimed to still believe that the late former Prime Minister emerged victorious in the August 2022 presidential election. Reacting to Uhuru’s comments, ODM leader Oburu Oginga said Uhuru’s position was in line with what the ODM has always maintained after the 2022 election but questioned Uhuru on why he decided to reopen the case after four years.

“For ODM, this confirms what we believed and maintained at the time. However, after exhausting the constitutional avenues available to us, we chose to let it rest and move on with the country,” Oburu said.

The ODM leader then turned his questions to Uhuru’s role in facilitating the transition of power that happened shortly after the polls.

“Second, if he was convinced that Raila Odinga had won, why was it in his power to facilitate the transfer of the instruments of power to a person who he believed had not won? Why is this revelation important now, four years later, and not when the said electoral injustice occurred?” he wondered.

Uhuru made his comments on Tuesday, September 22, during a Jubilee Party National Executive Committee meeting in Nairobi. The former president claimed to have done everything possible to ensure Raila’s presidential victory and remained convinced that the former ODM Party leader had enough votes to win.

“We did everything to help him (Raila) become President of Kenya, and to date I know he won that election,” Uhuru said, according to The Star . He said “we know how things went down” and do not want a repeat of the “election happenings”.

Furthermore, Uhuru questioned the Azimio alliance’s inability to translate its parliamentary and gubernatorial victories into a presidential win. Uhuru’s comments have reignited the debates about the August 2022 presidential election. According to the official results, Ruto got 7,176,141 votes, equivalent to 50.49 per cent, compared to 6,942,930 votes (48.85 per cent) for Raila. However, Raila filed multiple petitions challenging Ruto’s win before the Supreme Court. On September 5, 2022, the Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed to dismiss the petitions and nullify the presidential election results.

Oburu also used his response to recollect the political connection of ODM with Uhuru after the 2018 Handshake between the former president and Raila. He argued that ODM scaled down its political aspirations in the larger national interest for peace and stability and consequently, Uhuru’s government was not asked to concede Cabinet or administrative seats despite the party’s great political strength. The politician further claimed that ODM had made additional concessions in the run-up to the 2022 election by giving up on its ambitions for several critical elective positions in the country in support of Raila’s presidential bid. However, Oburu noted that the party acted in good faith and Uhuru should now face the nation and give an account of himself after having dug up the information.

“The 2022 election and the sacrifices of our departed Party Leader must not be prostituted for use as material for contemporary vote-winning politics. Having reopened this matter, President Kenyatta should face the nation and give the wholehearted account of himself,” Oburu said.

The opposition leader further questioned Uhuru on what he wanted Kenyans to do with the information that the President had unearthed almost four years after the presidential elections.

“What exactly does President Kenyatta expect the Kenyan people to do with this information today?” he asked.

The rekindled controversy has brought the 2022 presidential elections at the centre of political discourse in Kenya, although the Supreme Court had earlier nullified the results of the election petitions in favour of Ruto. Uhuru has not, in the course of the debate, revealed any new documentary or electoral evidence that could overturn the results of the presidential elections or the court rulings.