• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Violence Erupts as Kenya Holds New Presidential Election

By VOA News October 26, 2017

Thursday's repeat of Kenya's presidential election has been marred by clashes between police and protesters, as well as unopened polling stations in opposition strongholds.

Police fired tear gas at demonstrators in Kibera, a slum of the capital Nairobi, as they attempted to place barricades in front of a polling station. Violence also broke out in the western city of Kisumu, where dozens of polling stations were closed and election officials were nowhere to be found.

A man in Kisumu was shot and killed during clashes between police and protesters, according to local police.

The re-vote is being held more than two months after incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won an election that Kenya's Supreme Court eventually invalidated due to "irregularities and illegalities" by the national electoral commission, known by its acronym IEBC.

But the re-vote itself has been thrown into chaos. Opposition leader Raila Odinga withdrew his candidacy two weeks ago, arguing that the IEBC had not made improvements to the process, and called on his supporters to boycott the vote. A week later, electoral commission member Roselyn Akombe resigned and fled the country, saying the embattled commission is "under siege" from infighting and political intimidation.

Odinga issued a statement on the eve of the election pledging that his National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition would transform itself into a "resistance movement" against the vote.

The high court was set to hear a petition Wednesday filed by three registered voters to stop the re-vote, but the hearing was called off after Chief Justice David Maraga said the court lacked a quorum to do so.

2013 elections marred

Odinga and Kenyatta, who seeks a second term, also faced off in a 2013 election marred by opposition allegations of vote-rigging. The opposition leader also ran unsuccessfully in 2007. Ethnic-fueled animosity after that vote killed more than 1,000 people and forced 600,000 from their homes.

Many observers say Kenya's ethnic-based politics overshadow the promise of its democracy. Kenyatta is a Kikuyu, while Odinga is a Luo.

Some information for this report was provided by AP