Kenya: The Stunning Do Over

KENYA

The Stunning Do Over

Kenya’s supreme court Friday annulled presidential election results and ordered a repeat poll within 60 days.

It was a precedent-setting step for the country and the African continent, where autocrats keep winning unfair or rigged elections, often to rule for decades, the Guardian reported.

The court found that the “transmission” of the polls to election authorities, not the voting and counting at polling stations, raised concerns.

“Irregularities affected the integrity of the poll,” said Chief Justice David Maraga.

Kenyans – and others watching around the world – were stunned.

“Wow! Big step for the rule of law in Kenya,” tweeted Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth. “And a blow to electoral “’irregularities.’”

But the ruling itself was only part of the surprise. How it came to pass and how politicians responded to it have also been remarkable.

The ruling reflected widespread eyebrow-raising among international monitors, suggesting the court took third-party arguments into consideration.

“As the tallying was going on and forms needed to be uploaded there were some challenges,” EU Election Observer Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, told the BBC.

Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won the Aug. 8 election, criticized the ruling. “Millions of Kenyans queued, made their choice, and six people have decided that they will go against the will of the people,” he said.

But ultimately he accepted the decision, calling for “peace, peace, peace.”

He will now run against opposition leader Raila Odinga for a second time. Odinga received 44 percent of the Aug. 8 vote. He asserted that as many 7 million votes had been stolen, said the New York Times.

It’s possible Kenyatta relented because he was honestly thinking about the violence that might explode if he rejected the court ruling.

Shortly before the election, the Kenyan election commission’s IT expert, Chris Msando, was tortured and murdered. Odinga supporters said Kenyatta was to blame, USA Today explained.

After the Aug. 8 poll, riots resulted in 24 dead after Kenyatta was declared the winner with 54 percent of the vote.

That was tame compared to the contested 2007 election, when more than 1,000 people died and 600,000 were displaced following Odinga’s loss amid irregularities.

Odinga and his followers unsurprisingly reveled in the court’s move but even they were stunned. “For the first time in the history of African democratization, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular election of a president,” he said.

Kenyan human rights activist Tina Alai told the Washington Post that the new election could help her fellow citizens get over ethnic differences that usually result in fighting. Members of the Kikuyu tribe and their allies support Kenyatta, while Luos and their friends vote for Odinga.

If Kenyan elections are free and fair, they “will cease to be the opportunity where politicians can prey on these divisions among us,” she said.

That would be the best result of all.

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