Will Violence Flare Again in Kenya
Election boxes and election materials are seen at a tallying center in Kisumu, Kenya Oct 27, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Baz Ratner
Nairobi:Kenyan authorities said on Friday they would indefinitely filibuster farther attempts to hold a repeat presidential election in some areas due to the take chances of violence, as the opposition rejected the re-run equally "a sham" and said the polls should be cancelled.
The eastward African nation had been due to hold elections on Sabbatum in four western counties, afterward residents blocked roads and clashed with police on during an attempt to hold the polls there on Thursday. But those plans accept been largely put on hold, the election board said.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of the competition before this month, maxim the contestagainst President Uhuru Kenyatta was not going to be fair.
He urged supporters not to take part in the vote and polling stations were unable to open in his strongholds in the west of the state on Thursday.
In the residual of Kenya, most polling stations were able to open, but turnout was below 35% and there were clashes in Nairobi slums and in the coastal metropolis of Mombasa.
Kenyatta has won over 97% of votes counted so far, according to a local media tally, only the poor turnout has damaged his second-term mandate.
Pockets of violence continued on Friday, with law saying they shot dead one man, bringing to five the number of confirmed deaths since voting began on Thursday. All were killed in the west of the country, which supports the opposition.
Pockets of clashes
In the Nairobi slum of Kawangware, a Reuters witness saw well-nigh 100 youths armed with machetes in red t-shirts – the colour of the ruling political party – as a grouping of opposition supporters clashed with law. A big fire burned nearby.
"Information technology'due south only fire, everything is burned down, the fire is spreading more and more – my neighbours' homes, businesses are all burnt," said a tearful Rosalind Njeri, 28.
The vote has exposed Kenya's deep political and indigenous divisions as violence flares and court cases drag on. It is being closely watched every bit Kenya is a regional merchandise and logistics hub and powerful security ally for Western nations.
Kisumu election officials, who have had to cower behind locked doors while the popping sounds of tear gas and live gunfire echoed nearby, said they were very relieved not to have to try to open polling stations.
"The [ballot board] officers in Nairobi were not taking consideration of our lives," one said. "This is improve."
Musalia Mudavadi, a senior opposition leader, had earlier defendant regime of "ethnic profiling" and having "militarised elections" as they beef upwardly security ahead of the plan to concord voting in Homa Bay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya counties on Saturday.
"Nosotros advise the people non to walk into this trap of death," he told reporters on Fri.
One Kenya, two faces
Kenya's beginning election, in Baronial, was annulled by the courts because of procedural irregularities, denying Kenyatta a uncomplicated victory over his political rival. Turnout in that election was 80%.
If the expected legal challenges fail to clear a path out of the crisis, including a possible social club for another re-run, the effect volition be a protracted and economically damaging political stalemate between the Kenyatta and Odinga camps.
"Unless the courts annul the ballot, Kenyatta will motion forward without a clear mandate and Odinga will pursue a protest strategy whose chances of success in the circumstances are not very high," International Crisis Group annotator Murithi Mutiga said.
The sectionalisation was neatly captured in local media, with the Standard, a leading tabloid, headlining its front end folio: "One Kenya, two faces."
The election commission said more than than one in ten polling stations failed to open due to "security challenges". Its chairman, Wafula Chebukati, tweeted overnight that vi.55 1000000 ballots had been bandage – merely 34.5% of registered voters.
A tally of results announced at the constituency level compiled by the Nation media group showed Kenyatta had won over 96% of the vote with 200 of 292 constituencies appear.
Figures released by the ballot commission showed turnout in Kenyatta's Rift Valley and Central region strongholds was similar to levels seen in Baronial.
However, the cold-shoulder call was heeded by voters on the coast, which is far from his western homeland and saw footling violence just has overwhelmingly supported Odinga in previous polls.
Around l people have been killed, mostly past security forces, since the original Aug. eight vote, raising fears of sustained violence only a decade after 1,200 people were killed in serious ethnic fighting triggered by another disputed vote.
(Reuters)
Source: https://thewire.in/external-affairs/elections-kenya-delayed-risk-violence
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