Chaos in Kenya follows vote-hacking claim
KENYA: A bitterly divisive presidential election in Kenya descended into chaos yesterday after the opposition leader claimed that a government-sanctioned hacking attack had subverted the results to rob him of victory.
Police shot dead three protesters as violent clashes in the capital and elsewhere raised fears that the country could again be pitched into electoral violence after Raila Odinga accused Uhuru Kenyatta, the president, of resorting to ‘‘massive’’ fraud to secure re-election.
Kenyatta, seeking a second and final five-year term, was on course for a convincing victory, raising suspicions among his rival’s supporters that yet another Kenyan election had been rigged. With nearly all the votes tallied, the president had secured 54.3 per cent of the vote against Odinga’s 44.8 per cent, according to provisional results released by the electoral commission - a much wider margin of victory than opinion polls had suggested.
Although the election appeared to have been the best-run in decades, Odinga was quick to reject the result, claiming there had been a reprise of the rigging that probably cost him victory 10 years ago. ’’The electoral fraud and fabrication of results was massive,’’ he said.
As groups of Odinga’s supporters gathered in the slums of the capital Nairobi and in his strongholds in western Kenya, some feared a return to the bloodshed that killed 1300 people and displaced 600,000 more following his 2007 defeat.
Opposition supporters in Nairobi’s slums said they were awaiting an official declaration and further instructions from their candidate before taking action. Kalonzo Musyoka, Odinga’s running mate, called on supporters to remain calm but ominously hinted at the possibility of taking to the streets if the result was not overturned.
‘‘There may come a time we may have to call you to action,’’ he said.
Fury over the result was palpable in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, one of Odinga’s strongest bastions in the capital, where many said they were willing to face death if Kenyatta’s victory was allowed to stand.