Kenya: polls open in election rerun boycotted by opposition leader

Kenyans have started voting in an election rerun, which has polarised the country and is likely to be greatly disputed in the absence of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has chosen to boycott the poll.

In contrast to the first edition of the election, which was annulled last month by the supreme court, many polling stations in the capital saw only a few voters.

In the Kibera slum in Nairobi, police fired teargas at opposition supporters who tried to set up barricades in front of a polling station, prompting them to throw rocks at the officers. Similar incidents took place in the western towns of Migori, Siaya and Homa Bay.

The election is the climax of a political drama, which began when the supreme court overturned the victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta in the election on 8 August. It cited “irregularities” and mismanagement by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Kenyatta is almost assured victory, following the withdrawal of opposition leader Odinga, citing fears that the poll would be marred by the same flaws that saw the overturning of the August vote.

The boycott, in an acrimonious political environment marked by violence and intimidation, could stain the credibility of Kenyatta’s victory and open the result to for further legal battles.

In Odinga’s western stronghold of Kisumu, several polling stations failed to open and police fired teargas to disperse groups of stone-throwing young men.

Ballot boxes and electronic kits to identify voters and transmit results had not arrived in polling stations, and some officials faced attacks from opposition supporters while trying to deliver voting material, Agence France-Presse reported.

A supporter of Opposition Leader Raila Odinga wears a mock banknote with Odinga's face on it (Photo: CBC)

On Wednesday, Odinga called for a campaign of civil disobedience and resistance, telling several thousand supporters in the centre of Nairobi that the polls were a “sham” and amounted to a “coup d’etat” by Kenyatta.

There was relief that Odinga did not call for protests, which could have led to widespread violence, instead telling supporters to “hold vigils and prayers away from polling stations, or just stay at home”.

“Do not look at your [neighbour] with suspicion … He or she is as much of a victim as you,” said Odinga.

In a televised speech on Wednesday evening, Kenyatta described the rerun as Kenya’s “greatest democratic test”, though he also warned: “Let no one infringe on his brother or sister’s right [to vote] .... Our security agencies have been deployed across the country to ensure the safety of each and every Kenyan.

Earlier in the day Kenya’s supreme court said that it would not consider a petition to postpone the highly contentious vote, as not enough justices were available to form a quorum.

Odinga’s claims of vote-rigging after his defeat in 2007 elections prompted rioting and retaliation by security forces, which tipped the country into its worst crisis for decades. Around 1,200 people were killed in the ethnic violence that followed.