William Ruto declared winner of Kenyan presidential vote amid chaos at election center

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)- Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has been elected as the country's next President, the electoral commission announced Monday.

Ruto won with 50.49% of the vote, narrowly defeating veteran opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was contesting his fifth election.

He will become Kenya's fifth President since independence, winning the seat on his first attempt. Ruto's party, the Kenya First coalition, has won a majority of seats in Kenya's senate, the second highest in the National Assembly.

The results announcement was delayed for more than two hours past the constitutional deadline and the country's electoral commission was split, after four officials disowned the commission's chairman Wafula Chebukati's results.

The opposing officials staged a press conference of their own at another venue disputing the official results. The IEBC's vice chair Juliana Cherera was among those who disagreed with the results but provided no evidence of irregularities.

Earlier Monday, Ruto's rival Odinga's coalition also rejected the election results before they had even been announced by Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).