Violence, vote hacking claim mar election
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan police opened fire Wednesday to disperse rioters in several areas after presidential challenger Raila Odinga alleged election fraud, saying hackers used the identity of a murdered official to infiltrate the database of the election commission and manipulate results in favor of President Uhuru Kenyatta. At least three people were killed.
As Kenyatta held a strong lead in provisional results with 96 percent of all polling stations counted, the election commission defended the voting system as secure, saying there were “no interferences before, during and after” Tuesday’s election.
Election officials were verifying the final tallies Wednesday night. It was unclear how long it would take, though by law election officials have up to a week from the election to announce the results.
Odinga, a former prime minister, blamed Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party for the alleged hacking. “The fraud Jubilee has perpetuated on Kenyans surpasses any level of voter theft in our country’s history. This time we caught them,” he tweeted.
Soon after Odinga claimed on television that the election had been rigged, angry protesters in the Nairobi slum of Mathare and poor areas in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in the southwest burned tires, set up roadblocks and clashed with police.
Two people were shot dead in Nairobi as they took advantage of the protests to loot, Nairobi Police Chief Japheth Koome said. An Associated Press photographer said one was shot in the head. Police killed one person when they opened fire on protesters in another opposition stronghold in Kisii County, said Leonard Katana, a regional police commander.
Journalists say several attackers with machetes were shot Wednesday evening after an assault on a polling station. A Kenya News Agency reporter said the attackers destroyed ballot boxes and election commission laptops. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed.
Many parts of Kenya, East Africa’s commercial hub, remained calm, but the violence stirred memories of the unrest that followed the 2007 vote in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Odinga lost that election; he also lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and took allegations of vote-tampering to the Supreme Court, which rejected his case.
Odinga on Wednesday claimed that hackers used the identity of Christopher Msando, an election official in charge of managing information technology systems. On July 31, officials announced that Msando had been tortured and killed, alarming Kenyans who feared a recurrence of political violence fueled by ethnic divisions.
Odinga posted online what he said were computer logs proving his allegation.