Kenya opposition vows ‘will not relent’ amid poll dispute

NAIROBI — Kenya’s opposition coalition vowed on Saturday that they would not halt their bid to overturn a “sham” election result that handed President Uhuru Kenyatta a second term in office.

“We will not be cowed, we will not relent,” National Super Alliance (NASA) official Johnson Muthama told the media, describing a police crackdown on protests as an effort to force the coalition “into submission”.

Muthama claimed that some 100 people had been killed, although this could not be independently verified.

He said Kenyatta, who the electoral commission said beat NASA candidate Raila Odinga with 54 percent of the vote “does not have any electoral mandate to be president of Kenyans.”

“We wish to assure the people that we have the will, the determination, and the means to make sure your vote will count at the end of the day,” he said.

“We will communicate our next course of action at the appropriate time. For now, we appeal to our supporters and Kenyans to stay out of harm’s way.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations has urged Kenya’s defeated opposition to calm its supporters after claims of election rigging sparked violent protests that officials say left 11 people dead.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on defeated candidate Raila Odinga to “send a clear message to his supporters urging them to refrain from violence,” a statement on Saturday said.

Police opened fire to disperse protesters who blocked roads and set up barricades in the capital, Nairobi, on Saturday, a day after incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the presidential poll.

Kenya is no stranger to post-election violence and scars still run deep from a disputed 2007 vote that led to two months of ethno-political clashes, leaving 1 100 dead and 600 000 displaced.

There were also riots in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu where supporters of Odinga claim they have been robbed of victory. Guterres’ message was echoed by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

“We join the Kenyan people in mourning those who have died, calling on those with influence to exercise restraint at this difficult time to ensure calm, and to honour the Kenyans who turned out in such number to vote to determine their future,” said Johnson.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini also urged the opposition “to respect the results and to use legal means available for appeals and complaints”.

“Police have been trying to prevent demonstrators from coming to the city centre where most of the shops have been closed for days now. People have opted to stay away,” said Catherine Soi, reporting from Kisumu.

Business owners and residents voiced their concern about the situation dragging on for too long.

“It’s a political situation which has brought everything to a standstill,” Kisumu resident Uno Philip said.

Odinga (72), a mainstay of the Kenyan opposition since the 1980s, has been silent since his loss was announced.

In Nairobi’s Mathare slum, shops and markets slowly began opening and there was no sign of police or protesters yesterday.

“We want to hear Raila. We want to hear what he has to say. It’s him who will guide us. If he tells us to go on the streets, we will go on the streets. If he wants us to stay home, we will stay home,” said 25-year-old hairdresser Humpfrey Songole in Mathare. It remains unclear what the next move will be for Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition, but party leaders have said they will neither back down nor take their grievances to court.

Witnesses say Kenyan police officers harassed and physically assaulted at least four journalists covering protests over Kenyatta’s re-election.

The witnesses say the journalists were tear-gassed and hit with batons on Saturday, and their equipment was confiscated or they were ordered to delete content. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.

Kenya Television Network’s political reporter Duncan Khaemba was arrested and held for hours at a police station because he had not carried the permit for his bulletproof vest and helmet.

He was later released. — Al Jazeera/AFP

his two-year-old daughter’s bedside, said.

“They rushed to my kid too and gave us a manual pumping machine. It was the longest one-and-a-half to two hours of our lives. We spent the night pressing that machine so that nothing happened to our daughter.”

Others described the hospital in total chaos, with helpless parents carrying the lifeless bodies of their children, crying out for help. “It was very sudden. We didn’t know what was happening,” Bechna Devi said beside her three-and-a-half year old daughter Saroj. “Every hospital staffer around us was in a rush and they simply told us to use that pump machine for our child.”

Gorakhpur’s police commissioner Anil Kumar yesterday that 11 more children had died at the hospital on Saturday. “But I reiterate, they were not due to lack of oxygen supply,” he said.

As anger grew, opposition parties and government critics led the charge for Adityanath’s resignation. “The death of innocent children in Gorakhpur is a tragedy of epic proportions,” Sanjay Jha, a spokesman for India’s main opposition Congress party, said. — AFP