William Ruto is declared Kenya’s next president

elections in Kenya have followed a painful pattern. After taking an age to count the vote, the commission overseeing it announces that Raila Odinga, doyen of the opposition, has been beaten into second place. Mr Odinga then complains he has been robbed and challenges the result either in the courts or on the street. Much of this script has been retained this time round. On August 15th, the commission’s chairman announced that William Ruto, the deputy president, had been elected to the top job. Mr Odinga suffered his fourth defeat in a row. Amid a turnout of 65%, Mr Ruto got just over 50% of the votes to Mr Odinga’s 49%. There had been hopes that the usual narrative would be dispensed with this time. Alas, shortly before the head of the electoral commission declared Mr Ruto the winner, four of the seven members of the body dissented, deeming the process to have been too “opaque”. Mr Odinga is thus almost certain to challenge the result in court once again. The risk of widespread violence, as has occurred after previous disputed elections, has grown.