U.S. campaign adviser detained ahead of election
NAIROBI, Kenya — A U.S. campaign data company confirmed Saturday that its CEO was detained in Kenya and faced deportation after working on the opposition’s campaign ahead of Tuesday’s tightly contested presidential election, while the opposition accused police of raiding one of its offices.
The detention of the head of Aristotle, Inc. raised further concerns about the vote just days after a top Kenyan election official responsible for the electronic voting system was found tortured and killed.
Brandi Travis with Aristotle said CEO John Aristotle Phillips, an American, and Canadian staffer Andreas Katsouris were detained Friday night and faced deportation. Travis said Phillips was at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.
The two were assisting opposition candidate Raila Odinga with issues including strategy and data analysis and had chosen to get involved in the Kenyan election because they thought it had the potential for irregularities, Travis said. “Odinga was a candidate they really believed in,” Travis said.
Both Odinga and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta were in their final day of campaigning Saturday as some in the East African nation worried that the vote could turn violent, as it did a decade ago. Kenyatta is the son of Kenya’s first president; Odinga is the son of the country’s first vice president and has run in vain for the top post in three previous contests.
Recent elections in the East African high-tech and commercial hub have been hotly contested, and more than 1,000 people were killed in postelection violence in 2007. Kenyatta prevailed over Odinga in a 2013 vote that was mostly peaceful but tainted by opposition allegations of vote-rigging. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is among the thousands of expected election observers this week.
The U.S. Embassy in Kenya said on Twitter that the American and Canadian, without identifying them, were “safe and departing” the country.