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Tag: Uhuru Kenyatta

  • 2,000 Kenyans march to election board office in Odinga

    2,000 Kenyans march to election board office in Odinga

    Around 2,000 Kenyans marched towards the election board offices in the city of Kisumu on Tuesday, witnesses said, responding to a call from opposition leader Raila Odinga for protests against an imminent election.

    Odinga is boycotting Thursday’s repeat presidential ballot.

    He says the contest, against incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, will not be free and fair because the election board has not made sufficient reforms, and has called on his supporters to ensure it does not take place.

    “All we know is that there will be no elections. As to how this will be done, we are waiting for the big announcement by Baba (Odinga) tomorrow,” said one demonstrator, market trader James Ouma.

    The government and the election board have said the vote will go ahead irrespective of whether Odinga contests.

    Kenyatta officially won their first head-to-head on Aug. 8 by 1.4 million votes, but the Supreme Court annulled that vote on Sept. 1 over procedural irregularities.

    The ensuing political stand-off has blunted growth in East Africa’s richest economy, and the risk of confrontations has raised security fears in a nation valued for its stability and relative freedom in a region roiled by conflict.

    The protesters in Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold, waved branches and blew whistles as they marched.

    After the Supreme Court ruling, Odinga’s team presented a list of demands to the election board.

    Some have been met, opposition monitors will now have access to the board’s computers as results come in, a key official has gone on an extended holiday, and results will not be transmitted without a copy of a paper form from tallying centres.

    The board said it was impossible to meet other demands, such as changing the technology provider – in the short time frame allotted for new elections.

    The Kenyan constitution said fresh elections must be held within 60 days of nullified ones.

    NAN

  • Officials pledge tight security during Kenya repeat polls

    Officials pledge tight security during Kenya repeat polls

    Officials said security apparatus in Kenya will be on high alert during the repeat presidential elections scheduled for Thursday in order to avert skirmishes that could disrupt the exercise.

    Acting Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government Fred Matiang’i made the pledge while speaking in Nairobi during a meeting with regional administrators to review security preparedness ahead of the repeat polls.

    Matiang’i said: “solid measures are already in place to ensure the voting exercise is conducted in a peaceful environment.

    “The government reassures the public that it will execute its mandate of providing security throughout the country to ensure the fresh presidential election takes place in an atmosphere devoid of fear, intimidation and violence.”

    He said security apparatus have intensified vigilance to prevent chaos before, during and after the repeat polls that have triggered anxiety in some parts of the country.

    At the same time, Matiang’i warned that stern action will be taken on any individual or political groups intending to disrupt the repeat polls.

    He said that security personnel will guard election officials who will preside over the voting exercise to ensure they are not harmed.

    “The government will also ensure that Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission  officials have adequate security to conduct the fresh presidential election without interference from any quarters,” Matiang’i said .

    The repeat polls that have been boycotted by the main opposition National Super Alliance have elicited a mixture of anxiety and fear in the country.

    While the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta insisted that elections must be held on schedule, his opposition rival Raila Odinga has told his supporters to keep off the polling booths.

    The two political heavyweights have taken hardline positions as the country gears up for repeat presidential polls as ordered by the Supreme Court, which invalidated the ones, held on Aug. 8 citing irregularities.

    Security officials said monitoring of areas identified as volatile has intensified to prevent eruption of chaos during the repeat polls.

    Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet revealed that besides mapping hot spots, the national government has also deployed adequate security officers to maintain law and order during Thursday’s repeat presidential elections.

    NAN

  • Kenya’s deputy president okays demands made by opposition

    Kenya’s deputy president okays demands made by opposition

    Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto said on Tuesday there would be no problem if the election board agrees to meet demands made by the opposition ahead of a repeat presidential vote on Oct. 26.

    The Supreme Court annulled an Aug. 8 vote at the start of September after opposition leader Raila Odinga challenged the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

    Odinga has withdrawn from the repeat poll, saying the election board had failed to meet a list of conditions his coalition said would guarantee fairness.

    He has called for daily protests to force the reforms.

    “If they (the election board) chose to have a discussion with our competitors with a view to firing this member of staff or firing that member of that staff or changing a supplier … so long as the elections are there, we will participate,” Ruto told reporters.

    Under the constitution, the repeat election must be held within 60 days of the Sept. 1 invalidation.

    Read:Kenya’s example

    The election board says it will to go ahead with the vote but Odinga’s withdrawal has caused concerns of a political crisis.

    Ruto accused Odinga of trying to spark chaos through the protests in order to get a negotiated settlement, which Kenyatta’s side was not prepared to accept.

    “It is a manufactured situation to achieve a political end and that is what we must resist,” he said.

    Odinga was looking for a way out of the election after realising he was not likely to win, Ruto said.

    “They wanted a repeat election, they have a repeat election. They don’t want to participate. What do they want?” he said.

    Read Also:Kenya’s presidential rerun holds October 26

     

  • Kenya: Raila Odinga rejects new election date

    Kenya: Raila Odinga rejects new election date

    …Kenyatta rebuffs demand

    Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga said on Tuesday his coalition would not participate in the re-run of a presidential election proposed for Oct. 17 unless it is given “legal and constitutional” guarantees.

    Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta responded by saying there was nowhere in law that required the electoral body to consult Odinga.

    Related: Supreme Court nullifies Kenya’s presidential poll

    Odinga’s conditions for participating in the repeat presidential election include the removal of six officials at the election board.

    He called for criminal investigations to be opened against them.

    “You cannot do a mistake twice and expect to get different results.

    “A number of the officials of the commission should be sent home, some of them should be investigated for the heinous crimes they committed.”

    Kenya’s Supreme Court ordered on Friday that the Aug. 8 vote be re-run within 60 days, saying Kenyatta’s victory by 1.4 million votes was undermined by irregularities in the process.

    Kenyatta was not accused of any wrongdoing.

    The ruling, the first time in Africa that a court had overturned the re-election of a sitting president, was hailed by Odinga supporters as “historic”.

    Trending: Buhari, Nigerien President meet in Daura

    Analysts have said it is likely to lead to some short-term volatility in East Africa’s biggest economy but could build confidence in institutions in the longer-term.

    On Monday, the election board said it would hold new elections on Oct. 17, but Odinga said he wanted elections held on October 24 or 31 instead.

    “There will be no elections on Oct. 17 until the conditions that we have spelt out in the statement are met,” he said.

    Kenyatta rebuffed Odinga’s demands to the commission on the setting of the election date.

    Also Read: Kenya holds fresh presidential poll October 17

    “There is no legal requirement that Odinga be consulted. I was neither consulted. Kenya doesn’t belong to one man,” he said in a statement sent by his office.

    Odinga has lost the last three presidential elections. Each time, he said the vote was rigged against him.

    The opposition also plans to lodge 62 court cases contesting governorship, lawmaker, and local seats, spokeswoman Kathleen Openda said.

    At least 33 court cases were filed contesting election results before the presidential election was annulled, said Andrew Limo, spokesman for the election board.

    Others had been filed since but he did not have the updated figure.

    Limo said that the numbers had not yet reached the same level as during the 2013 elections, when the board received challenges to 189 results.

  • Kenya holds fresh presidential poll October 17

    Kenya holds fresh presidential poll October 17

    Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission said on Monday the country would hold a fresh presidential election on October 17

    The country’s Supreme Court on Friday nullifued the result of last month’s poll won by President Uhuru Kenyatta, citing irregularities in the exercise.

    “A fresh presidential election will be held on the 17th of October 2017,” the commission chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, said in a statement.

     

  • Supreme Court nullifies Kenya’s presidential poll

    Supreme Court nullifies Kenya’s presidential poll

    The Supreme Court in Kenya on Friday nullified the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the recent presidential poll election in the country.

    The court ordered a re-run of the election within 60 days.

    The decision to cancel the vote result, the first of its kind in Kenya’s history, sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

    Kenya has a history of disputed elections. A row over the 2007 poll, which Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic bloodshed in which more than 1,200 were killed.

    “The declaration (of Kenyatta’s win) is invalid, null and void,” said Judge David Maranga, announcing the verdict backed by four out of the six judges.

    “The first respondent (the election board) failed neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution.”

    Many voters in the west of Kenya, Odinga’s stronghold, and along the coast, where there is also traditionally large support for the opposition, feel neglected by the central government and shut out of power.

    Odinga has contested the last three elections and lost each time. Each time, he has claimed the votes were marred by rigging. In 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed his petition.

    This time, his team focused on proving that the process for tallying and transmitting results was flawed, rather than proving how much of the vote was rigged. (Reuters/NAN)

     

  • Odinga rejects poll results showing Kenyatta in lead

    Odinga rejects poll results showing Kenyatta in lead

    Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga rejected early results of a presidential election on Wednesday that showed he was losing to incumbent and long-time rival Uhuru Kenyatta.

    As of 0300 GMT, the election commission website put Kenyatta ahead by 55.1 per cent of votes counted to 44 per cent for Odinga, a margin of nearly 1.4 million ballots with more than 80 per cent of polling stations reported.

    Kenyatta, a 55-year-old businessman seeking a second five-year term, had held such a lead since the start of counting after Tuesday’s peaceful vote, the culmination of a hard-fought contest between the heads of Kenya’s two political dynasties.

    Odinga, a 72-year-old former political prisoner and self-described leftist, rejected the results as “fictitious”

    and “fake”, lashing out in a late night news conference at which he said his party’s own tally put him ahead.

    “We have our projections from our agents which show we are ahead by far,” Odinga said, questioning why published

    results were not accompanied by scanned copies of forms signed by all party agents in polling stations.

    Kenyan law states that where there is a discrepancy between a result on the website and the form, the result on

    the form will be considered final.

    Alleging vote-rigging, he also brought up the unsolved torture and murder of a top election official just over a

    week before the vote.

    “We fear this was exactly the reason Chris Msando was assassinated,” he said.

    Odinga’s comments carry ominous echoes of 2007 when he cried foul in an election marred by major irregularities.

    Around 1,200 people were killed in a campaign of ethnic violence that followed.

    Crimes against humanity charges brought by the International Criminal Court against Kenyatta and William Ruto, now his deputy, were withdrawn after witnesses died or disappeared.

    Odinga also ran and lost in 2013, but quelled potential clashes by taking his complaints about the widespread failure of electronic voting equipment to court.

    Many Odinga supporters said they believed their leader had been robbed of victory during the last two polls and vowed not to allow a third election to be stolen.

    “I will accept the outcome only if it’s credible,” said Odinga supporter Joseph Okuoch as he carefully watched vote tallying at his polling station in Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold in western Kenya.

    There were no signs of trouble in Kisumu as dawn started to break.

    The son of Kenya’s first vice-president, Odinga is an ethnic Luo in the west, an area that has long felt neglected by the central government and resentful of their perceived exclusion from power.

    Kenyatta, the son of the first president Jomo Kenyatta, is a Kikuyu, the ethnic group that has supplied three of the four presidents since independence from Britain in 1963.

    On Tuesday, Kenyatta called on whoever lost to concede the race.

    “In the event that they lose, let us accept the will of the people.

    “I am willing myself to accept the will of the people, so let them too,” Kenyatta said as he voted at the Mutomo Primary School in Gatundu, some 30 km north of the capital.

    Later, Odinga also told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that he would also accept loss “in the unlikely  event that I lost fairly”.

    The winner needs one vote more than 50 per cent, and at least a quarter of the vote in 24 of Kenya’s 47 counties.

    In addition to a new president, Kenyans are electing lawmakers and local representatives, the result of a 2010 constitution that devolved power and money to the counties.

  • Kenyans in Rwanda voting for president smoothly

    Kenyans in Rwanda voting for president smoothly

    Kenyan nationals residing in Rwanda on Tuesday participated in general elections by casting their votes at the diplomatic mission in the capital city Kigali.

    The elections in Kenya are for the President, county governor, senator, Member of Parliament, woman representative and member of county assembly.

    The voters began arriving at the Kenyan High Commission in Kacyiru sector, Gasabo district as early as 6 a.m. where a polling station had been established.

    By 11 a.m., at least 100 people had cast their votes.

    Speaking to Xinhua, Catherine Koskey, the presiding officer for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) at the embassy said that there have been no incidents and voters woke up as early as 6 a.m. to exercise their rights.

    “We started at 6 a.m. and are hoping to close at 5 p.m. We are encouraging Kenyans living in Rwanda who are registered voters to hurry and vote before deadline,” she said.

    According to Koskey, about 850 Kenyans in Rwanda registered to vote at the Kenya High Commission in Kigali.

    The main presidential contest is between incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta, the flag bearer of Jubilee coalition and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, leader of the National Super Alliance (NASA).

    Also on the list of candidates are six other independent candidates.

    “I’m glad that Kenyans have turned up to vote and no incidents and violence.

    “I believe things will get better after this election. I pray for peaceful elections,” said Eugene Anangwe, a Kenyan journalist living in Rwanda.

  • UN, Obama urge peaceful polls in Kenya

    UN, Obama urge peaceful polls in Kenya

    Ahead of Tuesday Kenya’s presidential election, the UN and former U.S. president Barack Obama on Monday called for peaceful polls, urging respect for the outcome of the polls.

    The UN urged whoever is dissatisfied with the outcome of the polls to use legal channels to address grievances, according to Mr Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the secretary-general.

    “We urge the leadership of the various political parties to respect the outcome of the elections and to use the existing legal channels to address grievances.

    “We also call for impartial and human-rights compliant conduct of the police and security forces as a cornerstone of peaceful elections,” he said.

    Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, said there has been “too much incitement and appeals based on fear from all sides”.

    The former president warned that the Kenyan people “will be the losers if there is a descent into violence.”

    “I urge Kenyan leaders to reject violence and incitement; respect the will of the people; urge security forces to act professionally and neutrally; and work together no matter the outcome.

    “The choices you make in the coming days can either set Kenya back or bring it together,” Obama said.

    “As a friend of the Kenyan people, I urge you to work for a future defined not by fear and division, but by unity and hope” Obama added in a statement.

    Tuesday’s election has been predicted as a battle between incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta battling to secure a second five-year term and his opponent and long-time rival opposition leader Raila Odinga.

    Odinga alleged voting irregularities after losing to Kenyatta in the 2013 election and took his case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in Kenyatta’s favour by saying the election was valid.

    Odinga was also a candidate in the 2007 election, which was followed by deadly violence fueled by ethnic rivalries.

    Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is among international observers who will be monitoring the election.

  • Kenyan police nab 12 drug barons in Mombasa

    The Kenyan police on Friday said that they had arrested 12 key drug barons during a major security operation conducted in the coastal city of Mombasa.

    Head of Anti Narcotic Police Unit, Hamis Massa, said that four foreigners were among those arrested and a haul of drugs was seized in joint raid by the detectives.

    The four suspects, included three Italians and a Mauritian.

    Sample of heroin and cocaine nabbed during the operation were sent to the Government Chemist for further analysis.

    Massa said that the wanted drug baron identified as Stephen Bosire is among the eight Kenyans arrested in the operation.

    He allegedly supplies large amounts of narcotics from neighboring countries, namely Seychelles and Tanzania.

    “We are holding the 12 suspects who are assisting us in the investigation before they are arraigned in court to face charges of drug trafficking.

    “Our officers are also inspecting some of the drugs seized during the operation,” said Massa.

    The suspects are believed to be local and international drug lords.

    On Feb. 17, Bosire’s accomplice Musa Kibiringe was arrested after he presented himself to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (CID) offices in Mombasa.

    The arrest came days after anti-narcotics detectives nabbed five most wanted drug barons in Mombasa amid a government operation to eliminate them.

    Swaleh Yusuf Ahmed was apprehended alongside his wife Asmah Abdallah, and other accomplices: Rashid Athman, Athman Salim and Farida Omar.

    All the suspects were scheduled to be charged to court on Friday.

    Kenya has lately sustained a crackdown on drug trafficking activities since the January extradition of the notorious Akasha brothers — Baktash and Ibrahim — to the U.S. where they are facing charges alongside Vicky Goswami (Indian) and Hussein Gulam (Pakistani).

    President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed an immediate crackdown on drugs, dealers and their dens at the Coast.