Kenya police, protesters clash after poll fraud claim
POLICE In Kenya have fired teargas and shot at a group of chanting supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga after the presidential candidate claimed “massive” fraud in this week’s elections.
Leonard Katana, a regional police commander, said yesterday’s shooting took place when protesters clashed with security forces in South Mugirango constituency in Kisii County, AP reported, adding that one person was killed in the incident.
Earlier, Odinga rejected the partial results of Tuesday’s presidential polls, saying hackers infiltrated the database of Kenya’s election body to manipulate the “democratic process”.
The opposition leader said that he could not reveal his sources on how he got the information on the alleged hacking. In a Press briefing that took place in the capital Nairobi, the presidential candidate said his party’s results are “completely different” from those published on election commission website. —
The contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta, a wealthy 55-year-old businessman, and Odinga (72) a former political prisoner and son of Kenya’s first vice president, has been a hard-fought election that stoked fears of possible violence.
Yesterday morning, the election commission website showed Kenyatta leading with 54.4 percent of the votes against 44.8 percent for Odinga, a margin of nearly 1.4 million votes, after 94 percent of the votes were counted.
Raphael Tunju, secretary-general of Kenyatta’s Jubilee party, earlier shrugged off the fraud allegations made by the Odinga camp.
“I don’t expect anything else from NASA,” he said, referring to Odinga’s National Super Alliance party.
“Let’s put it this way, if the results which are being streamed showed that they were leading what would they be saying now?”
Election officials on Tuesday acknowledged opposition objection but defended their actions. the
“We believe that by displaying results, we have been doing well to enhance transparency and accountability in the electoral process, consistent with the commitment the commission has made to the Kenya people,” said Commissioner Consalata Bucha Nkatha Maina, vice chairwoman of the election commission.
The commission’s CEO, Ezra Chiloba, also said a results screen at the commission’s counting centre had frozen because too much data was being received and that tallies would be updated later.
During the 2013 polls, Odinga alleged fraud but quelled unrest by taking his complaints to the courts.
This time, the government deployed more than 150 000 security personnel, including wildlife rangers, to protect 41 000 polling stations.
Meanwhile, hackers broke into the database of Kenya’s electoral commission and manipulated the results of the election, the leader of the country’s opposition coalition alleged yesterday. Vote counting is ongoing in east Africa’s strongest democracy after Tuesday’s election where voters were asked to either re-elect President Uhuru Kenyatta or replace him with longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga.
With ballots from 92 percent of polling stations counted, electoral commission (IEBC) results showed Kenyatta leading, with 54.4 percent of the nearly 13 million ballots tallied, against Odinga’s 44.7 percent, a difference of 1.3 million votes. Odinga rejected those results, claiming at a morning Press conference that they were the result of a intrusion by hackers into the IEBC’s electronic voting system, set up to guard against vote fraud.
“These results are fake, it is a sham. They cannot be credible,” Odinga told reporters.
He said the hacking affected all the results, both the presidential and the general election.
The hackers were able to access the system using the credentials of Chris Msando, a top IT official at the IEBC found tortured and murdered in late July, he said.
“This is an attack on our democracy. The 2017 general election was a fraud,” said Odinga, claiming detailed evidence of the hackers’ movements.
He would not say how he got the information, saying he wanted to protect his source.
The 72-year-old is making his fourth bid for the presidency as the flag bearer for the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition.
In the past, he has accused his rivals of stealing victory from him through rigging in 2007 and in 2013.
In 2007, the disputed vote resulted in two months of ethnically driven political violence that killed 1 100 people and displaced 600 000, a major blow to a nation seen as a regional bastion of stability.
The contested election in 2013 was taken to the courts and ended largely peacefully, though Odinga lost.
Odinga urged his supporters to “remain calm as we look deep into this matter”, but added: “I don’t control the people.” — AFP