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| Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga |
Kenya’s Su preme Court
on Friday (September 1) declared President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election win
invalid due to irregularities committed by the election board and ordered a new
vote in 60 days.
The decision to cancel the vote
result, the first of its kind in Kenya’s history, sets up a new race for the
presidency between Kenyatta and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.
East Africa’s biggest
economy has a history of disputed elections. A row over the 2007 poll, which
Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic
bloodshed in which more than 1,200 were killed. Many voters in the west of
Kenya, Odinga’s stronghold, and along the coast, where there is also
traditionally large support for the opposition, feel neglected by the central
government and shut out of power.
Odinga has contested the last three elections
and lost each time. Each time, he has claimed the votes were marred by rigging.
In 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed his petition. This time, his team focused
on proving that the process for tallying and transmitting results was flawed,
rather than proving how much of the vote was rigged.
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