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Following his narrow victory in a fiercely contested but generally peaceful election, William Ruto was inaugurated as Kenya’s fifth president since independence on Tuesday in a ceremony laden with pomp and circumstance.
At a jam-packed stadium in Nairobi, tens of thousands of onlookers saw him take the oath of office while cheering and waving Kenyan flags. Many of them were dressed in the eye-catching yellow of Ruto’s party.
“I William Samoei Ruto, in full realisation of the high calling I assume as president of Kenya, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the public of Kenya, that I will obey, preserve and protect this constitution of Kenya,” he said.
Earlier, as throngs pushed their way inside the site, several people were hurt. At one entrance gate, dozens of people were seen squeezing on top of one another in television footage.
Kenyans were urged by police to watch the event from home after the 60,000-seat stadium was filled before dawn.
Ruto, a notoriously ambitious politician and deputy president since 2013, narrowly defeated Raila Odinga in the August 9 election despite having the support of departing president Uhuru Kenyatta.
The 55-year-old rags-to-riches businessman, who previously sold chickens on the side of the road, now has the difficult challenge of leading a divided nation that is suffering from a severe drought and cost-of-living crises.
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The world community, which looks to Kenya as a dependable and stable democracy in a volatile region, has closely followed his ascent to the State House.
The voting process was commended by foreign friends and neutral observers for being mainly peaceful and free of the violence that has marred previous elections in the 50 million-person nation.
Ruto won by only around 200,000 votes out of 14 million but the Supreme Court on September 5 upheld his victory, dismissing his opponents’ claims of fraud and mismanagement.
A seamless transition of power has been pledged by outgoing president Kenyatta, who in an unexpected change of events supported his longstanding bitter opponent Odinga in the election contest.
After blatantly failing to officially congratulate his deputy for several weeks, Kenyatta finally clasped hands with Ruto at a meeting at the presidential house on Monday.
Ruto has adopted a conciliatory stance, offering his opponents and their supporters a “hand of brotherhood.”
“We are not enemies. We are Kenyans,” Ruto said after the court’s decision.
But Odinga turned down an invitation to attend Tuesday’s ceremony and instead travelled outside the country, charging in a statement that the election body did not conduct a “free and fair” poll.
