Several hurt in protests as Kenya election officials mull next move

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Several people were injured in protests in Kenya on Wednesday, a day after opposition leader Raila Odinga announced he would quit the presidential race, in a move that plunged the country into uncharted waters.

Election officials have been locked in crisis meetings since the decision, as debate raged over what Odinga’s move could mean for a dramatic election saga that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta’s August 8 victory annulled by the Supreme Court.

Kenyatta insists an October 26 do-over must go ahead.

But longtime rival Odinga says his withdrawal legally forces election officials to begin the entire process from scratch — a move that leaves more time for his reform demands to be met.

To maintain pressure, his opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition called supporters to the street, saying protests would take place every day from next week.

In Odinga’s western stronghold of Kisumu, thousands of protesters took to the street, blocking roads, setting heaps of tyres alight and engaging in running battles with police.

Doctor Juliana Otieno at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital — named for Odinga’s father — said three patients had been admitted with gunshot wounds.

“Up to now we have received about 23 (injured). Three of them are gunshot injuries. One is badly injured. The rest are small injuries like bruises and teargas that damaged their eyes.”

A separate healthworker at the same hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said eight people had been admitted “with gunshot wounds”.

In Nairobi police briefly teargassed protesters who threw stones at passing cars.

However, the crowd later dispersed peacefully after speeches from opposition leaders, helped along by the first heavy rainfall of the season.

Kenya’s Supreme Court last month annulled the August election citing widespread irregularities in the counting process and mismanagement by election officials, and called for a re-run within 60 days.

The decision was hailed across the globe and held up as an opportunity to deepen Kenyan democracy, however the process quickly turned sour, with increasingly ugly rhetoric including attacks by Kenyatta on the judiciary.

Odinga demanded deep reforms that the election commission (IEBC) said were impossible to deliver in the constitutionally mandated period.

“All indications are that the election scheduled for 26 October will be worse than the previous one,” he said, announcing his withdrawal Tuesday.

– ‘Path to the unknown’ –

Odinga is betting on a ruling by the Supreme Court after 2013 elections — in which he failed to have the result overturned — which sought to clarify what happens if an election is invalidated.

That judgement stated that if a candidate dies or withdraws from the fresh election, the IEBC must begin presidential nominations from scratch.

Odinga’s decision is likely to set the stage for more court battles, while deepening a political crisis that has also led to an economic slowdown.

“One thing is for sure, the country is entering uncharted waters and walking the path to the unknown,” the Daily Nation said in an editorial.

Protest violence immediately after the August election left 37 people dead, mostly at the hands of police, according to a Kenyan rights group.