PRESIDENT KENYATTA DECLARED WINNER OF TROUBLED ELECTION RERUN

NAIROBI President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday was declared the overwhelming winner of a rerun election boycotted by Kenya’s main opposition leader, collecting 98 per cent of the vote but also exposing the divisions roiling this East African country.

While Kenyatta’s backers celebrated his re-election, angry supporters of his rival, Raila Odinga, skirmished with police in Nairobi slums and burned tires in Kisumu, one of the opposition strongholds in western Kenya.

Kenya’s election commission said the turnout of voters in the Oct. 26 election was about 40 per cent, compared with roughly twice that in August balloting that was nullified by the Supreme Court because of what it called “irregularities and illegalities.”

The rerun was marred by deadly clashes between police and Odinga supporters in the days that followed.

Kenyatta, pictured, said he expected Odinga followers to mount new legal challenges, indicating the long saga that has left many Kenyans weary of conflict and has hurt business in East Africa’s economic hub is not over.

“My victory today was just part of a process that is likely to once again be subjected to a constitutional test through our courts,” Kenyatta said at the election commission headquarters after results were announced that gave him a second term. “I will submit to this constitutional path.”