Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance flag bearer Raila Odinga has disclosed details of a phone call conversation between himself and President-elect William Ruto before the announcement of the presidential results.
Speaking during a recent interview, the former Prime Minister noted that Ruto called him and they agreed to meet after the announcement of the election results.
Raila said the conversation was mainly about the outcome of the election and meeting afterwards.
“He 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,” the Azimio chief said on BBC News Africa.
Raila insisted that he won the presidential election, adding that by the time they had the conversation, Ruto was not aware that he had won the polls.
“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 added.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga PHOTO/COURTESY
Elsewhere, Ruto ruled out the possibility of working with his arch rival, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
He noted that he never subscribed to the so-called handshake, adding that the government works well with a strong opposition.
“I never believed in the handshake stories, I made my position clear because I believe in democracy, I believe in a government that has checks and balances
“When you have a government without doesn’t have the opposition, you run the very high risk of having a government that is not accountable precisely what we had seen over the last four years,” he said.
Ruto made it clear that he would only engage Raila as the opposition leader.
“My competitors have a role to play. I will work with my competitors in the role that the Constitution assigns the people in the opposition
“They will provide oversight over my government and I intend to work with them in that capacity,” said Ruto.
Ruto emerged victorious in the presidential election after garnering 7,176,141 votes; 50.49 per cent of the total votes cast.
Raila who was the Azimio La Umoja presidential candidate got 6,942,930 which is 48.88 per cent of the total votes cast.
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Ruto was handed the election certificate by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati at the Bomas of Kenya.
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