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LIVE: Raila Odinga on NASA’s next move
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Raila Odinga has announced that the NASA Coalition will take their elections dispute to the Kenya Supreme Court.
“We have now decided to move to the Supreme Court and lay before the world the making of a computer generated leadership,” he told journalists.
Odinga added that, “We had said that we’ll not go to court, but after the raid on AFRICOG & KHRC, we’ve now decided to move to Supreme Courts.”
Kenya’s government moved on Monday to shut down the two rights organisations who have been contemplating court action over last week’s disputed presidential election.
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Suspense as Kenya awaits next move on poll dispute
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga is expected to unveil his next move Wednesday to contest a presidential poll he claims was rigged in favour of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The 72-year-old cried foul shortly after vote counting began in last Tuesday’s election, sparking deadly protests in his strongholds that left at least 17 dead and 177 injured.
But the unrest has given way to a tense limbo as his supporters wait to hear if their leader will take his grievances to court, as he has been urged to do, or back onto the streets.
Initially, his decision was to have been announced on Tuesday, but he pushed it back by a day citing the “complexity and delicate nature” of discussions with his allies in the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition.
Odinga is expected to outline his strategy in an announcement at 1200 GMT, a party source told AFP.
His vow that “there is no turning back” and comments by NASA officials that court is not an option have placed the country on tenterhooks over the likelihood of a protracted vote dispute involving more violence and economic disruption.
The international community and many within Kenya have urged Odinga to use legal means to express his grievances.
The veteran opposition leader has now lost four elections and cried foul over results in the previous two.
After the 2007 vote, Odinga’s supporters took to the streets, and a resulting crackdown coupled with a wave of politically motivated tribal violence left over 1,100 dead.
In 2013 he challenged the presidential results in court and lost.
Any legal challenge must be lodged by Friday.
