Kenyan opposition faces calls to calm deadly protests
Kenya’s defeated opposition faced mounting calls at home and abroad to calm their supporters Sunday after claims of election rigging sparked violent protests that left at least 16 people dead.
Odinga’s flashpoint strongholds in western Kisumu and Nairobi’s slums were quiet Sunday, with signs life was returning to normal after two days of running battles with police, who in some cases fired live ammunition to disperse protesters.
But UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged thwarted presidential candidate Raila Odinga to “send a clear message to his supporters urging them to refrain from violence,” a message echoed by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
The anger erupted on Friday night after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor by a large margin over Odinga following what election pollsters had described as too close to call.
Odinga’s National Super Alliance ( NASA) coalition has insisted their candidate is the rightful winner, saying he was robbed of victory through hacking and manipulation of an electronic vote tallying system.
However calls for them to take their grievances to court, while Kenya’s foreign partners heap congratulations on Kenyatta, have left them isolated and under mounting pressure.
Odinga, 72, a mainstay of the Kenyan opposition since the 1980s, has been silent since his loss was announced, but was due to address supporters in Nairobi’s Kibera slum on Sunday afternoon.
His party officials have said they will neither back down nor take their grievances to court, as they did in 2013 when Odinga also cried foul over his loss.
“We will not be cowed, we will not relent,” NASA official Johnson Muthama said.
In Nairobi’s Mathare slum, shops and markets slowly began opening and there was no sign of police or protesters on Sunday.
Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner- takes- all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.