Pressure mounts on Odinga to quell deadly Kenya protests

The post-election violence is the worst since a disputed 2007 poll which Odinga claimed was stolen from him. That led to two months of protests and ethnic killings which left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

Britain’s Johnson urged Kenya’s opposition to “exercise restraint” to ensure calm.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini urged the opposition “to respect the results and to use legal means available for appeals and complaints.”

In another blow to the opposition, local election observer group ELOG, which deployed 8,300 observers and conducted a parallel tallying operation, determined Kenyatta had won with 54 percent — the same figure given by the electoral commission.

Odinga, who lost his fourth shot at the presidency, in 2013 also disputed Kenyatta’s poll victory, however took his case to the Supreme Court where he lost.

“We have been there before. Court is not an alternative,” said top NASA official James Orengo.

– ‘Zero-sum game’-

Kenyan media also urged Odinga to step up and address his supporters.

“NASA must direct its supporters to stand down, no matter how justified it feels that the presidential tally was rigged,” wrote the Standard newspaper in an editorial, while slamming the police response to protests.

Interior Minister Fred Matiangi denied there had been any casualties or that “innocent protesters” had been killed, saying police had clamped down on “criminal elements” taking advantage of the tension to loot and rob.

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.

Because of the opium of ethnicity, religion, and other divisive viruses the Kenyan elites provide consistently 24/7

— Dr Willy M Mutunga (@WMutunga) August 12, 2017

Odinga’s ethnic Luo supporters — and their allies from other groups — believe they have been denied political power by elites from the Kikuyus, the same ethnic group as Kenyatta, the country’s biggest community.

“The reason elections have become a trigger for violence is the relationship between power and prosperity. It is a zero sum game and winning becomes a life and death matter, hence losing is not an option,” wrote the Daily Nation in its editorial.