Rising tension:
Kenyan opposition supporters protest and call for the resignation of officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission over claims it bungled the August presidential vote, which was nullified by the supreme court in Kisumu on Monday.
Kenyan police fired teargas and shots in the air on Monday as protesters marched through the capital to protest against proposed legal changes that would make it harder for the supreme court to annul an election.
The country is due to repeat a presidential election on October 26 after the supreme court nullified an August 8 vote due to procedural irregularities.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won the August election, will again face opposition leader Raila Odinga.
At least 37 people were killed in a police crackdown on protests immediately after the August vote, the governmentbacked Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said in a report on Monday.
It is the highest death toll yet given for the violence.
Uncertainty over the coming election has created turmoil. Odinga’s opposition alliance is threatening to boycott the October vote unless the electoral board changes some personnel.
The protesters also wanted to warn governing party MPs not to pass an amendment to the election law that would limit the circumstances in which the supreme court could void an election on procedural grounds, opposition MP James Orengo said. “If parliament passes the law tomorrow, it will be like declaring war on the Kenyan people,” he said.
Justin Muturi, speaker of the National Assembly, said the amendment could be debated when parliament reconvened on Tuesday if MPs were keen to push it forward.
Muturi said the key part of the proposed law stipulated that if a candidate boycotted a national election whose date had already been set, the remaining candidate would win the contest without formal polls or a ballot being held.
The government was keen to avoid a constitutional crisis if Odinga pulled out at the last minute, frustrating the court’s order to hold elections within 60 days, Muturi said.
“We are trying to prevent a crisis should there be no elections,” he told Reuters by phone.