Election disputes leads to protests in Kenya

Unofficial results give President Uhuru Kenyatta 54% vote compared to his rival’s 44.7%, but Opposition alleges fraud

Two protesters were shot dead by police in the Kenyan capital  as unrest broke out after Opposition claims of massive rigging in an election that President Uhuru Kenyatta looked certain to win.

Japheth Koome, police chief for Nairobi, said the two who were killed had tried to “attack our officers with pangas (machetes) and that’s when the officers opened fire on them.” Police fired teargas — and in some cases live bullets into the air — to disperse several protests, which erupted in opposition strongholds in Nairobi as well as the western city of Kisumu after Odinga claimed a massive hacking attack had manipulated electronic tallying results.

Kenyatta looked to have an unassailable lead, according to unofficial results streamed onto the election commission (IEBC) website, handing him 54% compared to  Odinga’s 44.7%, with votes from over 96% of polling stations counted.

“This is an attack on our democracy. The 2017 general election was a fraud,” said  Odinga, claiming detailed evidence of the hackers’ movements. The 72-year-old, who is making his fourth bid for the presidency as the flagbearer for the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition, accused his rivals of stealing victory from him through rigging in 2007 and in 2013. “You can only cheat a people for so long,” he said