Poll promise: Election ‘will go ahead’ says Kenya’s president

A supporter of Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta displays the hats he is selling in the party colours, as he and others await the president’s arrival at an event in Nairobi’s City Hall. Mr Kenyatta said that the presidential election must go ahead as planned on Thursday, despite a boycott by the main opposition candidate and the chief electoral officer’s recent statement that he cannot guarantee that the polls would be credible.

Mr Kenyatta’s firm insistence that the elections must be held added to a crisis atmosphere in Kenya, which is embarking on one of the most perilous weeks in its political history, with the criticisms of the elections a blow to a country once heralded as a beacon of regional stability.