Live
Audio Only
A senior official of Kenya's election commission has announced that the country will hold new presidential elections on Oct.17, a day after the Supreme Court invalidated results from the Aug. 8 presidential elections.
Opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his supporters claimed fraud in the re-election victory of the ruling coalition candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
“We raised some very serious concerns and they have not responded to them,” said Musalia Mudavadi, an opposition senior official. “Since our issues have not been addressed, we will not be party to the process they are about to make.” Meanwhile, James Orengo, campaign manager for Odinga, denounced the counting process as “an entire charade, this is a disaster.”
International observers, including the former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Thabo Mbeki, former South African president, have given the thumbs-up to the vote and urged any complaints to be channeled through the courts, not street protests.
Shortly after accusing the ruling coalition of election hacking, unrest began in Kibera and the areas around Nairobi. Large numbers of police forces have been deployed.
According to witnesses speaking to the Associated Press, some protests began to break out in opposition-led areas within minutes of Odinga finishing his televised speech in which he accused hackers of infiltrating the voting system.
In Kisimu which is an opposition stronghold, police fired teargas at a group of 100 protesters.
Violence broke out following the elections in 2007 when people were attacked with machetes and had their homes burned. Over 1,000 people died in the days following the election.
Newsletter
