NAIROBI: Renew protests spurted in different parts of Kenya overnight, after Uhuru Kenyatta claimed yet another term of presidency with a whopping 98 per cent votes in an election boycotted by his rival Raila Odinga. Claiming a resounding mandate to serve a second five-year term, the announcement did nothing to resolve the country's deepest political crisis in almost a decade, as the opposition rejected the legitimacy of the result and calling for new elections.
When the Electoral Commission announced Kenyatta the winner, protests in opposition strongholds, including Nairobi’s slum neighborhoods of Kibera and Mathare, were triggered, sparking fears of more violence. Officials said lesser than 39 per cent of eligible voters participated in an election marred by intimidation against Supreme Court judges, death threats to electoral commissioners, and dozens of deaths of opposition protesters. The election was a repeat vote after the SC nullified the August 8 presidential election on the basis of irregularities. Political fights in the country are often based on ethnic lines, merged with winner-takes-all tendencies.
Odinga's ethnic group Luo often feels excluded from jobs and opportunities as the presidency has been dominated by the Kikuyu and Kalenjin groups since independence. At least nine people have died in violence since the election. Ethnic violence flared in Kawangware, west of Nairobi, where houses were burned and at lease one man killed.
Expressing concerns over the violence, US Ambassador Robert F Godec released a statement saying, “We appeal for calm in the coming days. We call on all Kenyans to come together at this critical moment to reject the politics of hatred and division. We again urge that there be an immediate, sustained, open, and transparent national dialogue involving all Kenyans to resolve the deep divisions that the electoral process has exacerbated. Leaders and politicians should clearly and publicly reject violence and work to keep the peace, and make every effort to ensure their supporters do so as well.”
Kenyatta meanwhile said there was no doubt that he had won overwhelmingly in the August election. “Today I as a Kenyan celebrate our resilience as a nation but I also celebrate the resilience of our democracy, the resilience of our people and also the resilience of our constitution. Any other country experiencing the twists and turns of our electoral process would have burst asunder but our Kenyan resilience will not tire. It will not give in to obvious provocation and base invitation to the politics of darkness.”
Criticising Odinga for challenging the August election, and failing to contest the October poll, he said, “Despite the fact that my major contender went to court demanding that the presidential election be nullified and was actually granted his pleading and an annulment, he chose to ignore the rest of the ruling, which ordered a fresh election in 60 days conducted by none other than the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission as constituted. Therefore he ultimately chose to abandon the fresh poll. I say this: You cannot choose the opportunity to exercise a right and thereafter abscond from the consequences of that choice.”
