SPEAKING UP
Rival gives date for own ceremony after boycotting repeat election
Opposition leader Raila Odinga addresses his supporters in Nairobi. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term yesterday in what some hoped would be the end of months of election turmoil, but violence continued, with at least one person killed as police fired rifles and teargas to break up an opposition gathering.
NAIROBI
KENYAN President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term yesterday, shortly before riot police teargassed the convoy of opposition leader Raila Odinga who told supporters he would be sworn in himself on December 12.
Kenyatta won a repeat presidential election on October 26 that was boycotted by Odinga, who said it would not be free and fair.
The Supreme Court nullified the first presidential election in August over irregularities.
Kenyatta’s speech acknowledged that the extended election season had divided Kenya, a Western ally in a volatile region, and blunted growth in East Africa’s richest economy.
“The elections are now firmly behind us… I will devote my time and energy to building bridges,” Kenyatta told the rapturous crowd in a sports stadium in the capital, Nairobi, as he formally began his second, five-year term.
He said Kenyans needed to “free ourselves from the baggage of past grievances, and …keep to the rule of law”. Supporters of Kenyatta – who won with 98% of the vote after Odinga’s boycott – want Odinga to engage in talks and move on.
But Odinga says talk of unity is tantamount to surrender.
He accuses the ruling of stealing the election, rampant corruption, directing abuse by the security forces and neglecting vast swathes of the country, including Odinga’s heartland in the west.
“On December 12, we will have an assembly that will swear me in,” Odinga told supporters gathered along a road in the Nairobi suburb of Eastlands after police sealed off the location where he had planned to hold a rally earlier in the day.
Minutes after Odinga spoke, riot police tear-gassed his convoy and charged the crowd.
The opposition had planned to hold a prayer meeting, saying it wanted to commemorate the lives of Odinga supporters killed during confrontations with the security forces over the election period.
More than 70 people were killed in political violence this election season, mostly by the police. Such killings are rarely investigated. – Reuters