KENYA
A Deadly Poll
Kenyans are bracing for violence after a bitter election campaign turned deadly Monday when the nation’s top election official was found tortured and murdered, Agence France Presse reported.
With President Uhuru Kenyatta and longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga locked in a neck-and-neck race, the death of Chris Msando has stoked fears that the Aug. 8 election will see a repeat of the kind of violence that occurred 10 years ago, when political protests and ethnic battles killed more than 1,200 people.
Msando oversaw a system of electronic voter identification and vote counting seen as crucial to avoid rigging. His murder took place just as officials were getting ready to run an audit of the system – it has since been postponed.
Odinga has claimed that fraud robbed him of victory in the past two elections. In 2013, when electronic voting machines suffered widespread malfunctions, Odinga took his complaints to court, but his qualms were dismissed.
An analyst told Reuters that the loss of Msando “will definitely undermine public confidence in the outcome.”
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