Top Kenyan polls official resigns, flees to US ahead of repeat vote
NAIROBI: A top Kenyan election commissioner has quit and fled the country a week before a rerun of the presidential vote, citing political intimidation and saying the election will be a “mockery” of democracy.
The resignation of Roselyn Akombe, one of seven election board commissioners, was likely to be seized upon by the opposition to bolster its claim that the Oct 26 polls would not be fair.
The re-run was ordered by the Supreme Court on Sept 1 after it nullified the Aug 8 re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, following a petition by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Odinga withdrew from the repeat polls last week, saying the election board had not carried out reforms demanded by the opposition.
His move thrust the country, a key Western ally and also the richest economy in the region, deeper into political uncertainty.
The election board had said the polls would go ahead with seven candidates on the ballot, including Odinga.
Akombe, a member of the election board’s top panel, cited severe partisan political divisions among its eight members and the secretariat for her decision to leave.
“The commission has become a party to the current crisis. The commission is under siege,” she said in a statement issued from New York on Tuesday.
She told BBC radio she had fled from Kenya to New York after receiving threats.
The upcoming election would not be credible, she added.
“We need the commission to be courageous and speak out that this election as planned cannot meet the basic expectations of a credible election.” Reuters