The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Uhuru Kenyatta

  • Kenya awaits presidential poll ruling

    Kenya awaits presidential poll ruling

     

    Kenya’s Supreme Court is set to announce its decision on a challenge to Uhuru Kenyatta’s election as president.

    The appeal was lodged by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Mr. Kenyatta’s main rival in the presidential poll this month.

    Official results said Mr. Kenyatta beat Mr. Odinga by 50.07 per cent to 43.28 per cent, avoiding a run-off by just 8,100 votes.

    The BBC says there is tight security at the Supreme Court. Violence after a disputed election in 2007 left more than 1,200 people dead.

    The presidential, legislative and municipal elections held on March 4 were the first since the 2007 poll.

    Mr. Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto, are facing trial on charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly fuelling unrest after that election. They deny the charges.

    There is tight security around the Supreme Court in the capital, Nairobi, with all roads leading to the building closed.

    Police chief David Kimaiyo warned on Friday that unrest would not be tolerated.

    He said: “We have reports indicating that some parties have organised their supporters to converge outside the Supreme Court during delivery of the ruling, and we will not allow any such gatherings.

    “There will be tight security in all parts of the country, we will not tolerate any form of violence.”

    The Supreme Court can either confirm Mr. Kenyatta’s victory in this month’s vote, or overturn the result and call for a fresh election.

    The BBC reports from Nairobi that whatever the outcome, there will be people who will be angry.

    Outgoing President Mwai Kibaki has urged people to stay calm and accept the result, but much will depend on Kenyans’ faith in their newly reformed judiciary, the report adds.

     

  • Odinga challenges election results in Supreme Court

    Odinga challenges election results in Supreme Court

    Kenya’s defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga filed a legal challenge to his election loss on Saturday in a major test of the country’s democracy five years after a disputed vote triggered deadly tribal violence.

    Shortly before, police outside the Supreme Court used teargas to break up a rally of around 100 Odinga supporters, who were urged by the outgoing prime minister to stay calm and trust in the law to resolve his complaint.

    BBC reports that Odinga’s petition threatens to extend the period of uncertainty shadowing east Africa’s largest economy.

    The outgoing prime minister refuses to accept the slim first-round election win by Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court over the 2007 bloodletting in which more than 1,200 people were killed.

    The March 4 vote was largely peaceful by contrast, and Kenyatta declared it “free and fair” in his acceptance speech last Saturday, though he added that the electoral process could be made more refined and efficient in the future.

     

  • Kenyatta wins Kenyan presidential election

    Kenyatta wins Kenyan presidential election

    … Odinga will not ‘concede’ defeat

    Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding president, won the presidential election by the slimmest of margins with 50.03 percent, provisional results showed, just enough to avoid a run-off after a race that has divided the nation along tribal lines.

    Kenyatta faces trial for crimes against humanity.

    If he is declared president-elect by the election commission, which has still to announce the official result, Kenya will become the second African country after Sudan to have a sitting president indicted by the International Criminal Court, Reuters reports.

    In the early hours of Saturday joyous supporters of Kenyatta thronged the streets in his tribal strongholds, lighting fluorescent flares and waving tree branches and chanting “Uhuru, Uhuru,” television pictures showed.

    Kenyatta’s main rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, trailed with 43.28 percent of the vote. A close adviser to Odinga said he would not concede the election and would launch a legal challenge if Kenyatta was officially declared the victor.

    “He is not conceding the election. If Uhuru Kenyatta is announced president-elect then he will move to the courts immediately,” Salim Lone told Reuters, speaking on behalf of the prime minister.

    Odinga’s camp had said during tallying that the ballot count was deeply flawed and had called for it to be halted.

    To secure an outright win a candidate needed more than 50 percent of the votes. Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister, achieved that but with a margin of just 4,100 of the more than 12.3 million votes cast.

     

  • Kenyan poll: Odinga’s camp alleges vote tampering

    Kenyan poll: Odinga’s camp alleges vote tampering

    Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s supporters said they had “evidence’’ of vote tampering in Kenya’s general elections, as ballots continued to be counted on Thursday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that early results from the presidential race gave a lead to Odinga’s rival, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who is to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    Kalonzo Musyoka, Odinga’s vice presidential running mate, said vote tallying should be stopped as legal action was being considered.

    Computerised counting was halted this week after numerous failures to the electronic system. Instead, ballots were being physically brought from around the country to Nairobi to be counted manually.

    The major discrepancy between the provisional results based on the electronic system and the results from the manual recount are in the spoiled ballots, the number of which has significantly dropped.

    The election commission said it would include invalidated ballots in its count. This will increase the overall voter pool, thereby making it harder for Kenyatta to pass the 50-per-cent mark and avoid a run-off in April.

    But, with less spoiled votes, Odinga, who is trailing by about 10 percentage points, may have fewer chances of forcing a second round.

    “The results we have received have been doctored,’’ said Musyoka, as he urged his followers to maintain the peace. “This is not a call to mass action.’’

    This week’s general elections were the first since the post-election bloodshed of 2007 to 2008, during which more than 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

     

  • Row over spoiled Kenyan votes

    A row has broken out in Kenya over whether spoiled ballots should be included in the presidential vote count following tightly contested polls, BBC reports.

    The coalition of candidate Uhuru Kenyatta accused the United Kingdom of playing a “shadowy” role by trying to deny him outright victory in Monday’s vote.

    There have been severe delays in counting as the electronic system has crashed. Early results put Mr. Kenyatta ahead of his rival Raila Odinga.

    On Tuesday, the election commission said the rejected votes would be included in the final tally – which could determine whether there is a presidential run-off.

    So far about 6 per cent of the total votes counted are spoilt ballots – well over double the number of votes cast for the third-placed candidate, Musailia Mudavadi.

    With provisional results in from more than 40 per cent of polling stations earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Odinga had 42 per cent of the vote compared with Mr. Kenyatta’s 53 per cent.

    More than 1,000 people were killed in the violence which broke out in 2007-08 after Mr. Odinga claimed he had been cheated of victory by supporters of President Mwai Kibaki, who is stepping down after two terms in office.

    Mr. Kenyatta is due to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) next month after he was accused of fuelling the violence to increase Mr. Kibaki’s chances of staying in power.

    He says the trial is politically motivated and he will clear his name in court.

     

  • Kenyan poll: Kenyatta in early lead over Odinga

    Kenyan poll: Kenyatta in early lead over Odinga

    Kenyans are awaiting results in their country’s presidential election, after millions cast their votes on Monday.

    With about a third of polling stations reporting, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta held an early lead over his main rival, PM Raila Odinga.

    The head of the electoral commission emphasised these were provisional figures and urged Kenyans to wait patiently for the final outcome.

    In 2007, more than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence, BBC reports.

    Clashes broke out after Mr. Odinga claimed he had been cheated of victory by supporters of President Mwai Kibaki.

    Violence has also marred the current election, with at least 19 people killed on Monday – mainly in coastal attacks attributed to separatists.

    The media urged Kenyans to put their faith in the electoral process.

    The election was a “turning point” whose outcome would determine whether Kenya would move forward as a “civilised state”, said a Daily Nation editorial.

    “We must all be ready to accept the election results without resorting to extra-judicial means of ascending to power.”

    Kenyans are also choosing members of parliament and senators, county governors and members of the 47 newly formed county assemblies.

    By early Tuesday, Mr. Kenyatta of the Jubilee alliance had established a lead over Mr. Odinga, who heads the Coalition for Reform and Democracy (Cord).

    With 35.8 per cent of polling stations reporting at 11:30 Nairobi time (08:30 GMT), the 51-year-old deputy prime minister had 2.31m votes, or 55 per cent, while the 68-year-old prime minister had 1.73m, or 41 per cent, said the website of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).