Deputy President William Ruto Defends Thursday's Repeat Election Voter Turnout on CNN

Deputy President William Ruto says that the total voter turnout in the repeat presidential election stood at 40 percent.

Speaking during an interview with CNN on Saturday, Ruto disputed the 33 percent turn out quoted by CNN, saying that Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will confirm the correct turnout after the final tally.

He however said that repeat elections across the world are marked by low turn outs.

“The history of low turnouts in repeat elections and especially where there is a boycott is clear,” said Ruto.

The Deputy President said that a majority of Kenyans who voted for President Uhuru and him turned up to vote again for them in Thursday's poll.

“But in our case 91 percent of those who voted for President Kenyatta in August have turned up and made the same decision. We now expect President Kenyatta to be sworn in.”

He further rubbished National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga's claims that voters boycotted the poll and accused him of unleashing a militia group in areas considered his strongholds in order to block Kenyans from voting.

“There is a percentage of voters that was denied a chance to vote. I challenge our opponent to remove the organised militia blocking the delivery of voting material and we will know for sure if those affected want to vote or not.”

In an interview earlier with CNN, Raila claimed that the low voter turn out witnessed on Thursday's repeat election showed that Kenyans have lost confidence with President Uhuru.

“Only 3.5 million people participated in the election, which is twenty percent of the total registered voters, that shows basically that people don’t have confidence. It is a vote of no confidence in the government of president Kenyatta and if I were him and I know that he is a democrat I would actually resign or step aside,” said Raila in a a Friday interview.