Nairobi, Aug 22 (AFP/APP):Kenya’s defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga filed a petition to the country’s top court on Monday challenging the result of the August 9 election that handed victory to his rival William Ruto.

                Odinga, a veteran opposition leader who ran with the backing of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the ruling party, has rejected the outcome of the poll, branding it a “travesty.”

                  He narrowly lost to Ruto by around 230,000 votes — less than two percentage points.

                 The 77-year-old politician filed a physical copy of the petition with barely an hour to go before the court’s 2 pm (1100 GMT) deadline for accepting the case.

An online copy was filed earlier in the day, according to a member of his legal team.

              Hundreds of supporters cheered as dozens of boxes of evidence were unloaded from a truck outside the court.

               “We have hopes that we have made a good case and will win,” Daniel Maanzo, a member of Odinga’s legal team, told AFP.

                  Although polling day passed off peacefully, the announcement of the results a week ago sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds and there are fears that a drawn-out dispute may lead to violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.

                  Since 2002, every presidential election in Kenya has triggered a dispute, with this year’s outcome also causing a rift within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) which oversaw the poll.