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Kenyan supreme court annuls Uhuru Kenyatta election victory Kenyan supreme court annuls Uhuru Kenyatta election victory
(about 1 hour later)
Kenya’s supreme court has nullified Uhuru Kenyatta’s win in the presidential election last month and ordered a new vote within 60 days. Kenya’s supreme court has declared Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory in presidential elections last month invalid and ordered a new poll within 60 days.
The six-judge bench ruled 4-2 in favour of a petition filed by the opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who claimed that the electronic voting results were hacked into and manipulated in favour of the incumbent. Kenyatta had won a second term with 54% of the vote. The decision to nullify the result, a first in Kenya, risks plunging the country into political chaos and sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta and the veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.
“The declaration [of Kenyatta’s win] is invalid, null and void,” said the judge David Maranga, announcing the verdict. The court did not place any blame on Kenyatta or his party. The six-judge bench ruled 4-2 in favour of a petition filed by Odinga, who claimed the electronic voting results were hacked into and manipulated in favour of the incumbent. Kenyatta had won a second term with 54% of the vote.
Odinga said: “It’s a very historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension the people of Africa. For the first time in the history of African democratisation, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying [the] irregular election of a president. This is a precedent-setting ruling.” East Africa’s biggest economy has a history of disputed elections and political violence.
Lawyers for Kenyatta described the nullification as a “very political decision” but said they would live with the consequences. “The declaration [of Kenyatta’s win] is invalid, null and void,” said Judge David Maranga.
Odinga’s lawyer had asked the court to invalidate Kenyatta’s win, saying scrutiny of the forms used to tally the votes found anomalies that affected nearly 5 million votes. “The first respondent [the election commission] failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution.”
Kenya’s electoral commission has said there was a hacking attempt but that it failed. International election observers have said they saw no interference with the vote. The hearing followed a petition filed by Odinga in the aftermath of his defeat last month. Opposition officials repeatedly described the election results as a “fraud” and claimed that Odinga, who leads the National Super Alliance (NASA), was the legitimate winner.
Odinga, a longtime opposition candidate and the son of Kenya’s first vice-president, unsuccessfully challenged the results of the 2013 vote. His supporters at first said they would not go to court again this time but filed a petition two weeks ago. Odinga has contested the last three elections and lost each time. His claims of rigging after defeat in 2007 elections prompted rioting and retaliation by security forces, which tipped the country into its worst crisis for decades. About 1,200 people were killed in the campaign of ethnic violence that followed.
Human rights groups have said police killed at least 24 people in unrest that followed the vote on 8 August. In 2013, Odinga said the election was rigged and took his case to the supreme court, but lost.
This time, his team focused on proving that the process for tallying and transmitting results was flawed, rather than proving how much of the vote was rigged. Only days after the poll on 8 August, Odinga, 72, vowed to “remove” the government of Kenyatta .
“We predicted they will steal the election and that’s what happened. We are not done yet. We will not give up,” he told an excited crowd of several thousand gathered on a rubble- and rubbish-strewn wasteland in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum and an opposition stronghold.
Election observers and western officials had called on Odinga to accept defeat, and said they had found no evidence of “centralised manipulation”.
In the first reaction from the government, lawyers for Kenyatta called the supreme court’s decision “very political” but said they would live with the consequences.
Human rights groups have said police killed at least 24 people in unrest that followed the vote.
Kenya was braced for further protests on Friday and police were deployed to sensitive areas of the capital, Nairobi. Security was tight around the courthouse as the judges prepared to rule on the challenge.Kenya was braced for further protests on Friday and police were deployed to sensitive areas of the capital, Nairobi. Security was tight around the courthouse as the judges prepared to rule on the challenge.
“This day is the D-day. We are going to know who is the president and we are very confident that the supreme court is going to give us our president,” said one Nairobi resident, Felix Achieng, before the ruling. Concern before the election rose when the official who oversaw the electronic voting system was found tortured and killed days before the vote. The electoral commission has said there was a hacking attempt as votes were being counted and compiled but it failed.
Local newspapers declared Friday a “date with destiny.” Many shops in the capital remained closed. Observers saw last month’s poll as the final act of a dynastic rivalry between the families of Kenyatta, 55, and Odinga that has lasted more than half a century. The candidates’ fathers, Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Odinga, having been allies in the struggle for independence from Britain, later became bitter rivals.
Unease around the election rose when the official who oversaw the electronic voting system was found tortured and killed days before the vote. But the unrest after the election result was far less widespread than post-election violence a decade ago that left more than 1,000 people dead. Kenyatta is from the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic community, and Odinga from the Luo, which has long felt marginalised. Both men built coalitions with other influential communities in a country where voting still takes place largely along ethnic lines.
Many voters in the west of Kenya, Odinga’s stronghold, and along the coast, where there is also traditionally large support for the opposition, feel neglected by the central government and shut out of power.