Odinga calls for boycott of elections
• Kenya’s opposition leader says rerun poll will not be free and fair
Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, urged his supporters to boycott Thursday’s presidential election.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga urged his supporters to boycott Thursday’s presidential rerun election, claiming it would not be free and fair.
“What we do tomorrow: one, do not participate in any way in the sham election. Two, convince your friends, neighbours and everyone else not to participate,” he told a crowd of thousands in Nairobi on Wednesday.
Odinga called on them to “hold vigils and prayers away from polling stations or just stay at home”.
Kenya’s presidential election has plunged the country into political turmoil.
The result of the original August vote, won by President Uhuru Kenyatta, was annulled by the Supreme Court after a legal challenge from Odinga, who then withdrew from the rerun the judges ordered, claiming lack of reforms at the election commission meant the vote would not be free and fair.
After a flurry of last-minute legal challenges failed to halt the election, Odinga told his supporters not to take part.
“Fellow Kenyans, tomorrow we begin with new determination the battle for electoral justice,” Odinga said, declaring that to participate would be to “succumb to dictatorship”.
He called on his supporters “to resist dictatorship and to fight to restore a government established in compliance with the constitution”.
Odinga said: “We must rise to the occasion and save democracy, not only for ourselves, but for all of Africa.” The veteran opposition leader, who has lost three previous elections claiming fraud in two of them, said his National Super Alliance coalition would transform into “a resistance movement” and “embark on a national campaign of defiance of illegitimate governmental authority and noncooperation with all its organs”.
Odinga reiterated his hope of forcing another “fresh, free and fair presidential election … within 90 days”.
Earlier, as a crisis loomed, a no-show by the majority of Supreme Court judges scuppered an 11th-hour petition to delay the presidential election and the governor of a volatile opposition region endorsed rebellion against the state.
Within minutes of Supreme Court Chief Justice David Maraga announcing that five judges had failed to turn up, ruling out a quorum, hundreds of supporters of Odinga took to the streets of Kisumu, his main stronghold. Riot police used tear gas to disperse them.
“We were expecting Maraga to cancel [the] elections. This means the push for postponement of the election is on,” said George Mbija, a motorcycle taxi driver in Kisumu, repeating Odinga’s demand for a clear-out of election board officials.
“As we wait for Raila to give us the direction, the status quo remains — no reforms, no election,” he said.
Kisumu governor Anyang Nyong’o, a hardline Odinga supporter, went a step further.
“If the government subverts the sovereign will of the people ..… then people are entitled to rebel against this government,” Nyong’o told reporters in Kisumu.