Kenyan Opposition Accuses President of Rigging October Election

Local Editor

Members of the Kenyan opposition have lodged a formal petition with the nation's Supreme Court, challenging the validity of October's presidential election. The filer claims that President Uhuru Kenyatta, who received 98.3 percent of the vote, was conducting a sham of an election.

The petition was filed by Harun Mwau, a former parliamentarian who claims that the Nairobi government also tried to suppress his attempts to file the petition with the Supreme Court.

In August 2017, the incumbent Kenyatta defeated challenger Raila Odinga, gaining about 54 percent of the vote in the process. Odinga argued that the election results had been tampered with by hackers and that Kenyatta stole the election.

Odinga challenged Kenyatta's victory in the Supreme Court, which agreed with his charge that corruption in Kenya's Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission may have led to rigging of the election in Kenyatta's favor. They ruled for a recount election to occur on October 26.

However, Odinga withdrew from the election in early October, arguing that there was no guarantee of a fair election the second time through since no reforms had been made to the electoral process or the IEBC. Essentially running unopposed, Kenyatta won with more than 98 percent of the vote - but voter turnout for the recount election was just over half as high as for the first.

Both elections were marred by violence, particularly the second, as police reportedly opened fire on protesters in some cities and killed dozens. There were also reports of voter intimidation.

Just as with the first election, the legitimacy of Kenyatta's second victory has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The seven judges have two weeks to rule on whether or not the election results were legitimate. If they find the second election also illegitimate, then a third recount election will have to be held within 60 days of the ruling.

"The legal situation is unclear," said Kenyan attorney Charles Kanjama to Bloomberg. "These are matters that have not been determined before. It can go either way."

Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, the leader of the Kenyan independence movement in the 1960s and the country's autocratic president from 1963 until his death in 1978. While the younger Kenyatta has proven himself to be a skillful diplomat since his ascension in 2013, his administration has also been embroiled in accusations of corruption.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team