3 dead in Kenya election protests

NAIROBI, KENYA— Three people, including a child, have been shot dead in Kenya in opposition protests which raged overnight into yesterday after the hotly disputed election victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Demonstrations and running battles with police broke out in Nairobi slums after anger in opposition strongholds against an election that losing candidate Raila Odinga claims was massively rigged.

An AFP photographer saw the body of a nine-year-old boy whose family said he had been shot in the back while watching the protests from a fourth floor balcony in Mathare, a slum in the capital.

The violence is a reminder of the bloodshed that followed a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

Attention is now focused on Odinga and his first reaction to Friday's official election results. He previously said the loss was a result of massive rigging of Tuesday's polls, which his party denounced as a "charade" and a "disaster".

Protests erupted in Odinga's strongholds in western Kisumu county and poor areas of Nairobi almost immediately after the election results were declared Friday, with gunshots ringing out and fires in the streets.

In the southwestern town of Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in a demonstration, but "we have not managed to collect the body... because of resistance from protesters."

Odinga, 72, is a veteran opposition politician seen as having taken his last shot at the presidency, which he has sought four times. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him.

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.

Amid the anxiety over how the situation would unfold, there was also much joy in Kenyatta's strongholds after he was declared the victor with 54.27 percent to Odinga's 44.74.

In his acceptance speech Kenyatta urged Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together."

The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance (NASA), has claimed both that the outcome was manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner. On Thursday it demanded Odinga be declared president.