Kenyan police shot tear gas at stone-throwing protesters this morning as polls opened for a re-run of the country’s presidential election.
Nairobi slums descended into violence as opposition demonstrators set fires and blocked roads to polling stations.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a second term, has urged for calm while opposition leader Raila Odinga has pulled out and told supporters to boycott the vote.
The 72-year-old Odinga, who has lost three previous elections claiming fraud in two of them, said his party would transform into ‘a resistance movement’.
‘We will embark on a national campaign of defiance of illegitimate governmental authority and non-cooperation with all its organs,’ he declared.
The vote is a re-run of August’s election which was annulled by Kenya’s Supreme Court due after officials announced results before they were verified.
Kenyan police officials walk towards a group of demonstrators who were preventing voters from accessing a polling station in Mathare, Nairobi
Protesters stand by temporary barricades across a street in Kibera in Nairobi
A protester supporting to the opposition National Super Alliance yells as nearby police officers approach in the Kibera slum
An opposition supporter gestures with a knife during clashes with police in Kibera slum in Nairobi
Supporters of National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate Raila Odinga burn tires at Kondele rounabout where a polling staion was supposed to be setup
In the western city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, several polling stations failed to open and police fired teargas to disperse protesters throwing stones.
Ballot boxes and electronic kits to identify voters and transmit results had not arrived in polling stations, with some officials facing attacks from opposition supporters while trying to deliver voting material.
‘So far, we have not deployed any material, and we have not deployed election officials. The reason is security,’ said returning officer John Ngutai.
‘We hope to be able to deploy later in the day. We hope for the best but prepare for the worst. The worst would be no election officials.’
Compared to August’s election, there was only a trickle of voters at polling stations – leading to fears the credibility of the election has been undermined.
One primary school in Kisumu that saw huge lines of voters when it served as a polling station in the august election was closed this time around with it gates locked.
‘We are not going to vote and we are not going to allow it,’ said Olga Onyanga, an opposition supporter in Kisumu.
Voting, meanwhile, proceeded in areas where President Uhuru Kenyatta has support, but fewer voters were turning out than last time.
Voters lined up before dawn at a polling station in Kenyatta’s hometown of Gatundu and electoral workers prepared ballot papers by flashlight after heavy rains knocked out power to the site.
‘Our hope for the country is that whoever emerges the winner will be able to unite the country, which is already torn apart by politicians and politics of the day,’ said Simon Wambirio, a Gatundu resident.
Kenyatta, who was declared the winner in August with 54 percent of the vote, said in a televised address Wednesday that security forces would be deployed nationwide to ensure order, and he urged Kenyans to vote while respecting the rights of those who don’t.
Residents greet Kenyan police officials as they walk towards a group of demonstrators who were preventing voters from accessing a polling station in Mathare, Nairobi
Opposition supporters clash with police in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya as officers fire tear gas
Residents throw stones at Kenyan police officials after blocking Olympic Primary School in Nairobi so no one could vote during presidential elections
Opposition supporters run during clashse with police in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya
Riot police are deployed to disperse supporters of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga protesting the presidential election re-run in Kibera slums of Nairobi
A police officer checks ballot boxes that were not sent yet to polling stations for a presidential election re-run in Kisumu, Kenya
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who got nearly 45 percent in August, said the new vote won’t be credible because of a lack of electoral reform and accused Kenyatta of moving a country known for relative stability and openness toward authoritarian rule.
Odinga vowed to disrupt today’s vote and has called for ‘massive’ demonstrations, but asked his supporters to stay away from polling stations in an attempt to avoid violent clashes.
In a statement earlier this month, he accused the government of instituting a ‘dictatorship’, adding: ‘We are going to win the battle for a free and fair election’.
‘Our opponents want an election for the sake of it, we want a better election,’ he said.
Odinga’s call for a boycott resonated strongly in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city and an opposition stronghold. He has urged followers to stay away from polling stations because of concerns about a crackdown by security forces.
Human rights groups said police killed dozens of people during protests after the August vote – authorities confirmed a smaller number of deaths and said they had to take action against rioters.
Odinga and Kenyatta also faced off in a 2013 election similarly marred by opposition allegations of vote-rigging.
The opposition leader also ran unsuccessfully in 2007 – ethnic-fueled animosity after that vote killed more than 1,000 people and forced 600,000 from their homes.
Many observers say Kenya’s ethnic-based politics overshadow the promise of its democracy – Kenyatta is a Kikuyu, while Odinga is a Luo.
A member of staff puts staff forms in undelivered ballot boxes at Lions High school in Kisumu, Kenya
Voters queue at a polling station at Mutomo primary school in Kiambu
People queue to cast their votes at a polling station during a presidential election re-run in Gatundu, Kenya
One Odinga supporter Joshua Nyamori, 42, hoped to vote at the Kenyatta Sports Ground but found no polling material or officials.
‘Even if 500,000 do not want to vote, polling stations should be open, even for the 10 people who want to vote,’ he said.
‘I am concerned because not all people are staying home by choice, some people are afraid of being attacked,’ he said.
In his view, the decision of the opposition coalition National Super Alliance (NASA) not to take part in the vote was a ‘political mistake’.
With eight candidates in the running, the vote was meant to be a final showdown between Kenyatta and Odinga, whose families have been locked in political rivalry for more than half a century.
Riot police fire tear gas to disperse supporters of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga protesting the presidential election
An anti-riot police officer walks by burning tires from opposition supporters at Kondele roundabout where a polling staion was supposed to be
A locked and empty polling station is seen during the Kenyan presidential election in Kisumu
A woman marks her ballot paper at a polling station in Nairobi
The boycott in east Africa’s richest economy and one of its strongest democracies is likely to tarnish the credibility of Kenyatta’s victory and deepen its worst political crisis since a 2007 election sparked politically driven ethnic violence that left 1,100 dead.
The re-run has been dogged by chaos and acrimony, prompting top diplomats to blast Odinga and Kenyatta for fuelling division instead of seeking a path to a free and fair election in the country of 48 million people.
Myriad legal battles failed to block the vote from going forward, with a final petition in front of the Supreme Court failing on the eve of the election as only two out of seven judges showed up.
The European Union observer mission, which like other foreign teams has limited its work due to security fears, said the poll’s credibility had been ‘undermined’ by the inability of the court to reach a quorum.
A statement signed by 15 foreign envoys representing the United States, the United Kingdom and several European countries, expressed disappointment that Kenya had not ‘come together to hold a better election’.
‘We are deeply disappointed by the continuing efforts of both parties to interfere with and undermine the independent operation of the electoral commission, the judiciary, and other essential institutions,’ the statement said.
An official waits for Kenyans to cast their votes at Mutomo Primary School polling station in Gatundu, Kenya, 26 October 2017
Joseph Njoroge Kimani, 3, waits while his father James Kimani Njoroge, both wearing suits in the colors of the Kenyan flag, casts his vote in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s hometown of Gatundu