Kenya Supreme Court upholds election of President Kenyatta

Kenya’s Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta but the political crisis is unlikely to end there.

The six judges have decided that the legal challenges demanding the cancellation of the polls were without merit, Reuters reports, clearing the way for Kenyatta to be sworn in on 28 November.

The ruling was met with applause in the courtroom, but the decision could spark more bloodshed.

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“The ruling is unlikely to end the worst political crisis in a decade in east Africa’s richest and most developed economy, which has seen more than 60 people killed in political violence in three months,” The Guardian writes.

Kenyans took to Twitter to urge calm, the Nairobi News reports.

Judges initially upheld a petition by the opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who claimed the electoral commission's IT system was hacked during the August elections to elect Kenyatta by a margin of 1.4 million votes. Elections were rerun in October despite a boycott by Kenyatta's main rival Raila Odinga.

In a statement through his adviser, Odinga said the ruling wasn’t a surprise and may have been taken “under duress” but he didn’t provide any evidence of that claim.