Kenya election rerun in doubt as acrimony deepens

– ‘Worrying’ rhetoric –

The opposition alleges that the August 8 election was rigged through the hacking of an electronic vote-tallying system.

It said that many of the so-called 34A tallying forms, meant to back up electronic results, were delayed and often had not been signed or stamped, or were illegible or lacking serial numbers or watermarks.

French biometrics firm OT-Morpho, which provided the results transmission system, has said that an audit of its system showed no hacking or manipulation of data.

But the IEBC has yet to comply with a Supreme Court order to allow independent access to its servers.

Cheeseman said that with the IEBC suffering from lost legitimacy, an ideal solution would be for rival parties to sit down and negotiate an election which could be acceptable to all.

Increasingly bitter rhetoric, however, has driven them only further apart.

“A lot of the language has been really worrying,” Cheeseman said.

He pointed in particular to comments by Kenyatta saying he would “fix” the Supreme Court if re-elected, and threatening to impeach Odinga if he wins.

Analysts say the main problem with a rushed, imperfect election is that the Supreme Court has now set a potentially problematic precedent, by overturning an election result based on shoddy procedures without taking into account whether the flaws would have altered the outcome of the vote.

As a result, the losing party in the new vote could again argue that improper procedures had marred the results, which could lead the Supreme Court to again overturn the result.

According to Kenya’s constitution, the IEBC has until October 31 to hold the new election.

“They do have a window. Even if it is late by a few weeks. However if they go beyond (that date) that is unprecedented and there is no guidance as to what happens there,” said Kenyan writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola.

Kenya Supreme Court Elections Ruling 2017 by The Independent Magazine on Scribd