Kenya election: shootings, fires and bloody clashes mar presidential vote

The election rerun in Kenya today appears almost certain to end in victory for the incumbent president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who campaigned without a credible challenger after opposition leader Raila Odinga withdrew from the contest over alleged voting irregularities in the previous poll.

None of the six other minor candidates received more than 1% in the August election, according to Al Jazeera English.

But while Kenyatta’s victory is all but assured, the matter will not end there. The Kenyan Electoral Commission has already said it can’t guarantee a credible vote, and Odinga has urged voters to boycott polling stations.

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“In stark contrast to the first ballot in August, which was overturned by the Supreme Court, several polling stations in key areas stood empty or welcomed only a handful of voters in an election likely to face more legal battles,” says the News24 website.

Opposition supporters clashed with police earlier today and threw up burning barricades in pockets of the country in a bid to derail the election, Reuters reports.

Within hours of polling stations opening, the first election-related shooting death was confirmed in the western town of Kisumu, where, according to CNN, police used tear gas and water cannons on protesters. At least four people were admitted to hospital with bullet wounds, along with more than a dozen who had been beaten by police.

Human rights groups claim that security forces killed at least 67 people during protests following the August vote, says The Washington Post. Kenyan authorities claim the death toll was lower.

The BBC’s Africa editor, Fergal Keane, says today’s election rerun has “implications not only for the country but also for much of the continent”. Keane praises the Supreme Court’s decision to annul the August elections, and calls Kenya’s Chief Justice, David Maraga, a “man of great courage”.

A last-minute petition by the Supreme Court to postpone today’s vote failed after the court was unable to gather a quorum of judges to hear the case. The deputy chief justice was unavailable after her bodyguard and driver was shot, an incident many Kenyans saw as intimidation of the judiciary, ABC News reports.

“Whether the court has now backed off or been frightened off, what could have been a huge advance for democracy in Kenya - and by extension, Africa as a whole - could end up setting the clock back,” writes David Pilling, the Africa editor of the Financial Times.