Election protests rage on in Kenya
KISUMU, Kenya — The sun had barely risen, but protesters were already bracing for another wave of confrontations with the police in the city of Kisumu on Saturday after an election disputed by supporters of Kenya’s opposition party.
As the smell of tear gas and smoke from burning debris clung to the morning mist, residents began assessing the damage from the previous night’s protests after the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, a vote many in this part of western Kenya believe was stolen, even though international observers concluded it was fair and transparent.
In Nairobi, the capital, the opposition National Super Alliance Party claimed the police were provoking violence and accused them of killing dozens of people nationwide, although party officials provided no evidence for their claims. Reports from news agencies put the death toll from violence overnight at 11.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, an independent organization, said Saturday 24 people had been killed in election-related violence since Tuesday’s vote, including 17 in Nairobi. A provincial commissioner in Kisumu, Wilson Njega, said at least one person had been killed in the city.
Hundreds of residents of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, clashed overnight with the police, who, they said, cut off electricity to create confusion, sprayed live bullets into crowds, fired tear gas and blasted them with water cannons. The police, witnesses said, conducted house-to-house raids in parts of the city, and residents accused some officers of beating them with clubs and stealing money from them. The police in Kisumu declined to comment on the allegations.
“If the police are coming to beat us, we are ready for war,” Calvin Otieng, a Kisumu resident, shouted, waving a plastic bottle filled with flammable liquid, his eyes bloodshot. He had not eaten for days, he said. Large groups of men talked loudly on a major road that was blocked with rocks, burning tires and overturned market stalls. Some shops had been set on fire, their corrugated walls, still smoking, collapsed in a metallic heap.
“We are angry and we want to demonstrate,” said another resident, Ken Wamungu, 30. “But the police are not protecting our right to protest.”
Around midnight Friday, Kenyatta was declared the winner against Raila Odinga, the 72-year-old opposition leader. The announcement was made after a long and bitter contest roiled by allegations of vote rigging, fears of violence and the unresolved murder of a top election official just days before the vote.
Throughout his campaign, Odinga roused supporters by warning the election results would be manipulated. As ballots were being counted, he claimed the electoral commission’s servers had been hacked — which he linked to the poll official’s death — to award Kenyatta a significant lead. Then, the opposition leader asserted he had obtained secret information from the electoral body showing him to be the real winner.
So far, Odinga has not provided evidence supporting those allegations.
But tensions were ratcheted up when he refused to concede defeat, saying the electoral commission had not properly addressed the opposition’s grievances before officially announcing the winner. He has urged his followers to remain calm, but he also said he did not “control the people.”
At the same time, top opposition officials have indicated they are unwilling to resolve their concerns about election fraud in court, as they tried, unsuccessfully, to do after the 2013 election. Election observers warned such comments could be interpreted by the opposition’s supporters as a call to protest. Many did.
Shortly after the announcement of Kenyatta’s victory was televised, riots erupted in major cities across Kenya. They were mostly in poor areas generally neglected by the central government, and where residents suffer from high unemployment and rising living costs. Many cannot afford to buy ugali, a staple food, or pay school fees for their children.
“We are hungry and angry,” said Kisumu resident Steve Odundo, 22.
Many supporters of Odinga said they were angry that international observers, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, did not appear to take the opposition’s claims seriously.
The protests have also put attention on response by the police. Human Rights Watch called on the Kenyan authorities to exercise restraint.
They “should not use tear gas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful,” said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
At the Jaramogi Ogingi Odinga Hospital, named after Odinga’s father, an independence hero, six people were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries.
David Okoth, 32, was shot in the neck. His brother, Martin, said the pair had been eating at home when they heard a commotion. When they stepped outside, he said, “we saw a police car coming close by, spraying bullets at us.” One of the bullets hit Okoth, he said.
Jebel Ngere, a police official overseeing operations in Nyandala, a neighborhood in Kisumu, declined to comment on witnesses’ claims, but he said many of the protesters were using the election as a pretext to loot. One local supermarket was vandalized, he said.
Protesters, armed with rocks, slingshots and machetes, were being pushed away from major roads and central parts of the city, which the police and soldiers were trying to secure, Ngere said.
But the protesters kept returning in waves, he said, taunting the police with rocks and other projectiles, before being forced to retreat again.
About 600 uniformed members of the security forces and plainclothes officers have been deployed in Kisumu, a number far greater than after previous elections, according to officials.