Kenya’s
electoral commission yesterday announced that the current President Uhuru
Kenyatta has been re-elected, putting an official end to a fierce electoral
contest that
many fear could still be clouded by a dispute over the results.
Opposition
candidate, Raila Odinga, 72, had earlier alleged that the results of Tuesday’s
balloting were rigged and pledged not to accept them unless he was declared the
winner.
That stance
has raised tensions, with Odinga’s followers burning tyres in recent days in
some of Nairobi’s slums and protesting in the western city of Kisumu.
Odinga’s
campaign yesterday suggested a possible way out of the dispute, with officials
saying they might accept the results if they were able to inspect the electoral
commission’s computer servers.
But for
days, some of his most extreme supporters have promised to take to the streets
if Kenyatta was announced the winner.
According to
the official results, Kenyatta received 54.2 per cent of the votes, against
Odinga’s 44.7 per cent.
News
agencies reported that this week, Nairobi, normally a frenetic city of
legendary traffic jams, was transformed into a relative ghost town, with many
families leaving out of fear.
Yesterday
morning, in anticipation of the official results being announced, Odinga’s
supporters staged small demonstrations in some areas, taunting the Police and
chanting “No Raila, no peace.”
Bystanders
watch as Kenyan police trucks arrive following a protest at Nairobi’s Mathare
slum yesterday.
In 2007,
over 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence after Odinga lost that year’s
presidential election amid alleged vote-rigging.
Kenyatta,
55, the son of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta, is a member of the
Kukuyu ethnic group, which has dominated politics since Kenya’s independence
from Britain in 1963.
Odinga, his
longtime political rival, belongs to the Luo tribe.
Kenyatta was
first elected in 2013 and has tried to project the image of a reformer, even as
his government has been plagued by allegations of corruption.
In an
acceptance speech, Kenyatta addressed his opponents, saying: “We are not
enemies. We are all citizens of one republic. There is no need for violence.”
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