[NASA leader Raila Odinga in a past event. Lawyer Moseti says his decision to boycott October elections worked against President Uhuu Kenyatta due to poor turnout. Photo/Nation]
The decision by opposition leader Raila Odinga to bolt out of Thursday's presidential elections worked to the detriment of President Uhuru Kenyatta, says lawyer Moseti Moseti.
Even though he was widely pursued by international community to be part of the poll, a defiant Odinga still kept out of the race, a move Moseti says worked 'perfectly'.
"Voter turnout was very poor and this partly portrays to the world that indeed something went wrong with the August elections," he said.
During the August elections, over 80 percent of Kenya's 19.5 million voters participated in elections contrary to around 33 percent that showed up in the October repeat poll.
Supreme Court had annulled Uhur's victory in September over 'illegalities and irregularities' which Odinga said that had not been fixed by IEBC thus bowing out of the race.
"Whether or not his excuses to boycott were genuine, the repeat poll has shown his influence and I think IEBC is struggling to admit that there poor turnout."
At an interview with KTN, Odinga insisted that the turnout was below 30 percent, a claim that was later dismissed by DP William Ruto in a similar interview.
A tweet by Chairman Wafula Chebukati that indicated about 6.5 million had turned up to vote has been widely criticized following indication that Uhuru was heading to a landslide victory of 7.5 million based on projections from IEBC portal.