{"id":365254,"date":"2017-10-26T06:40:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T06:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=365254"},"modified":"2017-10-26T06:40:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T06:40:45","slug":"kenya-voting-begins-in-re-run-amid-tightened-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=365254","title":{"rendered":"Kenya: Voting begins in re-run amid tightened security"},"content":{"rendered":"

Security has been tightened in Kenya as voting gets under way in a re-run of the presidential election which is being boycotted by the main opposition.<\/p>\n

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a second term, has urged people to vote and remain peaceful.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has pulled out of the election re-run, has called on his supporters to boycott it.<\/p>\n

Mr Kenyatta was announced the winner in an 8 August vote but the poll is being held again because of “irregularities”.<\/p>\n

The polls on Thursday opened at 06:00 (03:00 GMT) with tens of thousands of police and other security personnel deployed to protect voters and polling stations.<\/p>\n

One voter in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, taxi driver David Njeru, 26, told the AFP news agency: “It is my duty to vote. Last time the queue was all around the block and I waited six hours to vote, this time the people are few.”<\/p>\n

On the eve of the vote, Mr Kenyatta urged people to cast their ballots: “Our forefathers fought and died for the right of the African to vote, we dare not reject this inheritance.”<\/p>\n

As the polling stations opened their doors, opposition protesters attempted to block roads in parts of Nairobi’s Kibera slum, with riot police using tear gas in a bid to disperse the crowds.<\/p>\n

\"Riot<\/p>\n

The announcement by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Mr Kenyatta’s victory on 8 August led to inflammatory rhetoric and attacks on the body.<\/p>\n

Last week, a senior\u00a0member of the IEBC fled to the US<\/a>\u00a0amid death threats.<\/p>\n

About 70 people have been killed in violence since Mr Kenyatta was declared the winner in August’s election.<\/p>\n

Mr Odinga had wanted the repeat ballot to be held at a later date, but a bid to delay the election re-run fell apart after only two out of seven Supreme Court judges attended a hearing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One judge, Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, failed to appear after her bodyguard was shot and wounded by unknown gunmen on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

What went wrong in August?<\/h2>\n

Kenya’s Supreme Court took the unprecedented decision to annul the August presidential election and demand a re-run in September citing “irregularities and illegalities”.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice David Maraga said the election had not been “conducted in accordance with the constitution” and declared it “invalid, null and void”.<\/p>\n

He said the verdict, which was backed by four of the six Supreme Court judges, found that the IECB had committed irregularities “in the transmission of results”.<\/p>\n

The court said the result was “neither transparent nor verifiable”.<\/p>\n

The court ruling did not attribute any blame to President Kenyatta’s party or campaign.<\/p>\n

The ruling raised tensions, with rival protests in support of and against the court.<\/p>\n

There were running battles between police firing tear gas and stone-throwing protesters in the city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

‘We want a better election’<\/h2>\n

Mr Odinga has said that the IECB has failed to make the changes needed to prevent a repeat of the mistakes that marred the earlier poll, although the IECB disputes this.<\/p>\n

His opposition coalition – the National Super Alliance (Nasa) – made clear its participation in the election was contingent on reforms being made.<\/p>\n

\"Raila<\/p>\n

Mr Odinga has vowed to disrupt Thursday’s vote and has called for “massive” demonstrations, but asked his supporters to stay away from polling stations in an attempt to avoid violent clashes.<\/p>\n

In a statement earlier this month, he accused the government of instituting a “dictatorship”, adding: “We are going to win the battle for a free and fair election”.<\/p>\n

“Our opponents want an election for the sake of it, we want a better election,” he said.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Security has been tightened in Kenya as voting gets under way in a re-run of the presidential election which is being boycotted by the main opposition. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a second term, has urged people to vote and remain peaceful. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has pulled out of the election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[1612,1546,1613,1614,766],"class_list":["post-365254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-iecb","tag-kenya-elections","tag-kenya-polls","tag-nasa","tag-uhuru-kenyatta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}