Kenya Opp. says polls ‘rigged’, 2 shot dead

Nairobi, Aug. 9: Two protesters were shot dead by police in the Kenyan capital on Wednesday as unrest broke out after Opposition claims of massive rigging in an election that President Uhuru Kenyatta looked certain to win.

An AFP photographer saw one of the victims, a young man with a massive gunshot wound to the head, while a senior police officer confirmed two had been killed in the flashpoint slum of Mathare. “They were part of a group that was protesting in the area and officers were sent to quell the chaos,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

Japheth Koome, police chief for Nairobi, said the two who were killed had tried to “attack our officers with pangas (machetes) and that’s when the officers opened fire on them”.

Police fired teargas, and in some cases live bullets into the air, to disperse several protests, which erupted in Opposition strongholds in Nairobi as well as the western city of Kisumu after Mr Kenyatta’s rival Raila Odinga claimed a massive hacking attack had manipulated electronic tallying results.

Mr Kenyatta looked to have an unassailable lead, according to unofficial results streamed onto the election commission website, handing him 54 per cent compared to Mr Odinga’s 44.7 per cent with votes from over 96 per cent of polling stations counted.

Decrying a “sham” tallying process, Mr Odinga detailed accusations of a major attack on the electronic system saying hackers had gained entry using the identity of top IT official Chris Msando, who was found murdered and tortured late last month.