Kenyan stocks and bonds fell on Wednesday after opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of a repeat presidential election set for Oct. 26.
The all-share index dropped 0.67 percent and the blue-chip index 1.41 percent, while Kenya’s dollar-denominated 2024 sovereign bond fell as much as 1.2 cents, according to Reuters data, as political uncertainty deepened.
Odinga, who successfully challenged the Aug. 8 re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta last month, said the repeat poll should be canceled and a fresh election held after the election board has carried out reforms.
“There was cautious optimism, but now political risk has risen considerably overnight driven by the opposition candidate’s withdrawal,” said Ken Minjire, the head of securities at Genghis Capital in Nairobi.
The all-share index has lost 5.5 percent and the blue chip index is down 10 percent since the August election was annulled.
The Kenyan shilling, which fell 0.5 percent after the election was annulled on Sept. 1, was stable against the dollar on Wednesday. Traders attributed that to the central bank’s credibility, which is bolstered by healthy foreign-exchange reserves.
It was unclear after Odinga’s withdrawal whether repeat elections would be held on Oct. 26. A court ruling on Wednesday said other candidates, none of whom polled more than one percent, could also be on the ballot, possibly giving Kenyatta someone to run against other than Odinga.
The opposition leader has been leading regular protests against the electoral board, and hundreds of his supporters marched through the streets of the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday.
Concern over the prolonged political uncertainty have hit economic growth, with businesses and households feeling the pinch. The government has already cut this year’s economic growth forecast to 5.5 percent from the initial 5.9 percent.
But Aly Khan Satchu, an independent trader and analyst, said he expected the election to go ahead after the court ruled in favour of the minority candidate, ushering in a relief rally afterwards.
“I expect the Oct. 26 election to take place &#8230; We should start to see a recovery at the bourse,” Satchu said.
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Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by
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Kenyan assets tumble after opposition leader pulls out of election

Kenya lurched deeper into political confusion on Wednesday as a court ruling and a parliamentary vote appeared to ease Uhuru Kenyatta’s path to a second term as president, a day after his chief rival quit an election they were to contest.
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Kenyatta and Raila Odinga were due to face off in a repeat election on Oct. 26, after the Supreme Court annulled their August ballot &#8211; in which the president was declared the winner.
But Odinga pulled out of the re-run on Tuesday, fuelling doubts about whether it would be contested at all. Wednesday’s interventions by the judiciary and legislature added to the uncertainty.
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As police used teargas to disperse opposition protesters demanding electoral reform, the High Court approved a petition by Ekuru Aukot, who polled less than 1 percent in the August vote, to contest the second ballot.
The election board later issued a statement saying that all eight candidates who competed in August would be on the ballot. It also said although Odinga had notified them of his withdrawal by letter, he had not yet submitted the official form to do so.
The developments suggested that the second election would go ahead, with Kenyatta the likely winner against a plethora of weaker candidates. No challenger except Odinga polled more than 1 percent.
Further muddying the political waters, parliament passed an election law amendment stating that if one candidate withdrew from the re-run vote, the remaining one would automatically win. The vote was boycotted by opposition lawmakers.
The law aimed to ensure Kenyatta could be declared president if he faced no challengers.
The events stoked confusion among voters and fears that politically-driven violence might escalate. Months of political uncertainty have already blunted growth in East Africa’s richest nation, a long-time ally of the West.
“There’s a real atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty. There seems to be dozens of opinions of what should come next,” said Murithi Mutiga, a senior Horn of Africa analyst for the global thinktank International Crisis Group.
<h3>UNEASE</h3>
Justifying his pullout on Tuesday, Odinga said the election would not be free and fair and renewed calls for the electoral board (IEBC), which he blamed for the procedural irregularities identified in the first ballot, to be replaced.
Opposition supporters on Wednesday renewed their protests for electoral reform.
Demonstrators lit bonfires in Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold in the country’s west, while more than a thousand supporters marched through the central business district in the capital Nairobi. Police used teargas to disperse them in both cities, witnesses said.
Juliana Otieno, the chief executive of the Oginga Odinga Hospital in the city, said 17 people had been admitted with injuries suffered during the protests. A Reuters witness counted at least five of them with bullet wounds.
Kisumu’s police commander, Titus Yoma, said he had no information on the bullet wounds and his officers were still quelling the protests, which were centred around two slums in the lakeside city.
At least 37 people were killed in protests immediately following the August vote, almost all of them by police, a Kenyan rights group said on Monday. Ethnic clashes killed 1,200 people following a disputed presidential poll in 2007.
“We want a reformed IEBC,” said Elisha Odhiambo, an opposition legislator, referring to the electoral board, which has frequently relied on riot police dispersing protests outside its offices in recent weeks.
Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho, a key opposition player, told protesters in Uhuru Park: “Our voices must be heard. We have no war with anyone but we will not allow anyone to stifle us.”
After the High Court ruling in his favour, Aukot told reporters that he still had concerns about the board and would issue a statement in a day or two giving clarity about his plans.
It was unclear if other candidates from the first ballot with little support would also seek to be included, but the election board said it still had time to print ballot papers.
The Sept. 1 Supreme Court judgement that nullified Kenyatta’s 1.4 million vote win also stipulated elections had to be held within 60 days.
If that schedule is not met, the constitution provides for the speaker of parliament, a member of Kenyatta’s party, to take power.
With two weeks to go until the elections, it is still unclear who will stand.
“I would expect one of the parties will try to seek an authoritative announcement from the Supreme Court,” International Crisis Group’s Mutiga said.
Amid the political uncertainty, the government has trimmed this year’s GDP growth forecast from 5.9 percent to 5.5 percent last month.
The country’s equity markets slid further on Wednesday. Kenya’s all share index closed down 0.67 percent while the blue chip index fell 1.41 percent. [nL8N1MM3L8]
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Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo and George Obulutsa; editing by John Stonestreet and Toby Chopra<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-286672" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Kenya-Elections_Uhuru-Posters_Flickr-730x480-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" />
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Kenya vote in balance as crisis deepens after Odinga quits

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Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Tuesday he would not stand in a court-ordered re-run of August’s presidential election that is scheduled for Oct. 26.
Odinga has repeatedly said he would boycott the polls if the election board did not replace officials he blamed for irregularities in August.
“In the interest of the people of Kenya, the region and world at large, we believe that all will be best served by (opposition grouping) NASA vacating the presidential candidature of elections slated for 26th of October, 2017,” Odinga told a news conference in the capital of Nairobi.
Last month, the Supreme Court nullified incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win on Aug. 8 due to procedural irregularities and ordered a new poll to be held within 60 days.
On Tuesday, legislators from the ruling party were debating proposed amendments to the election laws, which said if a candidate boycotted an election, the remaining candidate automatically wins.
Opposition legislators boycotted the session.
Ruling party legislators told Reuters on Monday that they were trying to head off a constitutional crisis if Odinga pulled out of the election.
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Reporting by George Obulutsa and John Ndiso; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Alison Williams
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Kenyan opposition leader withdraws from repeat presidential poll

Men in plain clothes fired shots in the air as hundreds of opposition supporters marched through the Kenya’s capital to its election board headquarters on Monday, a Reuters witness said.
The demonstrators were demanding reforms ahead of a presidential election scheduled for Oct. 26.
Senator James Orengo from the opposition alliance said they also wanted to warn ruling party lawmakers not to pass a proposed amendment to the election laws that would limit circumstances in which the Supreme Court could nullify an election.
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reporting by George Obulutsa; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by John Stonestreet
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Hundreds of protesters march to Kenyan election board HQ

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 Police fired teargas at opposition activists in Kenya’s capital as protests mounted in cities on Friday calling for the sacking of election board officials involved in August’s cancelled presidential vote.
Crowds gathered in Nairobi, the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu and the port of Mombasa for the second time this week.
Kenya’s Supreme Court voided the Aug. 8 election citing irregularities without finding any individual at the election board responsible. [nL5N1M119T]
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won the vote only to have his victory annulled, has accused the Supreme Court of bringing the country close to “judicial chaos”. Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters have turned their ire on the election board for its role in the cancelled poll.
With three weeks to go until a scheduled re-run of the vote, politicians from both sides have traded insults and accusations, raising fears of further turmoil in the regional economic and transport hub.
The opposition is threatening to boycott the Oct. 26 re-run if election board officials are not removed and if parliament passes a proposed amendment to the election law that would prevent the Supreme Court from annulling the results again.
Earlier on Friday, the Nairobi county police commander said people would be allowed to protest, but anyone who tried to destroy property would “be dealt with firmly”.
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Reporting by George Obulutsa; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens
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Police teargas Kenyan vote protesters, crowds gather in cities

Faith Kiboro |SMC University
After a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Kenya’s August 8 presidential election, the country now finds itself in a moral predicament between political stability and electoral credibility.
On one hand, the ruling that ordered a fresh presidential election was a win for the democratic process the world over. The court found that Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was in violation of constitutional procedure. It also found that the commission had violated election law and in so doing impugned the credibility of the election.
On the other hand, the court’s decision has ushered the country into a period of political instability. Where it would have closed the chapter on the 2017 election cycle, it is now gearing up for a repeat poll slated for October 26.
Kenyans now find themselves in a tight spot made even more uncomfortable by demands being made by Raila Odinga and his National Super Alliance. The opposition is insisting that certain conditions, including reconstituting the election commission and reprinting key election documents, must be met before the October 26 election can be held.
The opposition’s hard stance could result in a delayed election. This could also happen if OT-Morpho, the French biometrics firm which supplied the electoral commission with its electronic voting system fails to have a new system ready in time. It’s indicated that it won’t.
If indeed the key issue with the last election was that the voting system was not “simple and verifiable” as demanded by law, then any delays could be interpreted as being in the interests of a free, fair, credible and transparent election.
But for those who argue that no electoral process can be perfect, and that the August 8th poll was merely dogged by minor and inadvertent errors, then it begs the question: what is more important, electoral credibility or political stability?
<h2>Electoral credibility</h2>
The Supreme Court prioritised electoral credibility by invalidating the presidential election result on grounds that the election commission had committed illegalities and irregularities.
In doing so, it broke ranks with foreign election observer missions which had concluded that the presidential election was credible. By and large the Supreme Court ruling was a win for Kenyans and the rule of law. The court took the opportunity to audit the electoral process for transparency and to define the parameters of a credible election.
But its ruling raised questions of its own. For instance, the court ruled that the electoral commission didn’t strictly adhere to election procedure as set out in law. It also held that there had been tampering with the commission’s electronic voter management system. But it mandated the same commission to carry out a fresh election within 60 days.
Because the court gave no direction on the reconstitution of the commission, the petitioner Odinga and the respondent President Uhuru Kenyatta are now at an impasse over who should remain at the commission.
<h2>Political stability</h2>
Those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling see the court’s decision as a subversion of the will of the Kenyan people. For them, the ruling was a destabilising force which didnt’ reflect the people’s decision.
Giving credence to this argument is the fact that Kenya is viewed as the economic hub of East Africa. If the country does not return to normalcy as quickly as possible there will be a ripple effects, including economic, across the region.
On top of this, Kenya finds itself in a precarious situation because the executive is at odds with the judiciary. Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party has the majority in both houses of Parliament. It is therefore within its capacity to limit the independence of the judiciary should it continue to feel aggrieved by the Supreme Court decision.
This could happen through a parliamentary referendum as per Article 256 of the Constitution and would involve members of parliament deciding to amend the constitution without a popular vote.
But by far the most pressing threat to Kenya’s continued political stability is the possibility that the Supreme Court may have created a situation in which Kenya could remain in election mode ad infinitum. Nothing stops a new petition from being filed should one of the candidates contest the next poll results.
If we look at Kenya’s neighbour Rwanda we see an example of a head of state that’s arguably prioritised a semblance of political stability over election credibility. Paul Kagame was recently re-elected for the third time. Some argue that his rule has benefited Rwandans because the country has shown better socio-economic outcomes than most African countries.
But there tensions simmer and in the absence of electoral credibility, Rwanda’s political stability may be skin deep.
<h2>Rethinking Kenya’s election system</h2>
The Kenya case raises questions about elections in Africa and whether they are a force for political stability or instability. I would posit that Kenya has made great strides to improve electoral credibility since its catastrophic 2007 election.
In conclusion, election credibility and political stability aren’t mutually exclusive.
There should be a positive correlation between democracy and the improved well being of a state and its people. But in a country like Kenya with 40-plus tribes, the more populous tribes will always take advantage of their voting might, while the less populous ones struggle to compete. The system just does not work in their favour. It would seem therefore that they are locked out – not by choice but by circumstance.
So, does a majoritarian, “winner-takes-all” system suit an ethnically diverse society like Kenya’s?
Perhaps, not. I’m persuaded that there needs to be a re-imagination of electoral democratic practices in Africa. Kenya should take recent events as an opportunity to clean up its institutions and electoral system. If it doesn’t, future polls will continue to offer up a point of diversion between electoral credibility and a tenuous political stability.

The thin line between electoral credibility and political stability in Kenya

Kenya’s ruling Jubilee Party on Thursday presented parliament with proposals intended to prevent the Supreme Court annulling the results of a coming re-run presidential election, as it did the last vote in August.
The court struck down President Uhuru Kenyatta’s poll victory then, saying there had been illegalities and irregularities in the transmission of results.
Kenya used two systems to transmit results from polling stations: paper forms and the electronic transmission of the vote tallies plus scanned copies of the forms. The court found flaws in both.
Jubilee’s proposed amendments to election law would stop the court from invalidating results if the electronic transmission again fails to work smoothly. The manually transmitted results would be final, a copy of the amendments seen by Reuters on Thursday showed.
The re-run vote is scheduled for Oct. 26 and opposition challenger Raila Odinga’s coalition has said it will not take part unless the proposed changes are dropped, calling them “sanitisation of the flaws of the Aug. 8 vote”.
The amendments would also prevent the court from voiding an election on the grounds of non-compliance with the law, provided the poll was held in line with constitutional principles and the non-compliance did not affect the result of the election.
The president, two dissenting Supreme Court judges, and some legal commentators have faulted the court’s majority ruling for failing to explain how the illegalities cited interfered with the result of the election.
Kenyatta said last week the ruling by the Supreme Court threatened to thrust the country into “judicial chaos”, as lower courts use the precedent to invalidate other elected positions.
The dispute over the election law changes adds to a war of words ahead of the repeat election.
Odinga has called for street protests to force out senior officials from the electoral board, while Jubilee has said the election will go ahead even if Odinga’s side refuses to take part.
Hundreds of University of Nairobi students fought running battles with police around their campus on Thursday, as they protested against the detention of an opposition legislator.
Paul Ongili Owino was re-arrested on Wednesday, shortly after being released on bail on charges of subversion for calling Kenyatta a “son of a dog” at a campaign rally on Sunday.
He was arraigned again in court on Thursday on new charges of an assault causing “grievous harm” to a voter during the campaign for last month’s election.
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Editing by Andrew Roche
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Kenya’s ruling party moves to amend election law ahead of vote re-run

Kenya’s presidential re-run has been rescheduled for Oct. 26, the election board said on Twitter on Thursday, a day after a detailed Supreme Court judgment laid out the reasons why the court had nullified last month’s poll.
The election board had originally said the re-run would take place on Oct. 17, but a French firm whose technology is being used for the polls said it would not be ready in time for that date.
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reporting by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Gareth Jones
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Kenya election board: presidential re-run to be held on October 26

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Thursday the country’s Supreme Court staged a “coup” against the will of the people when it annulled last month’s presidential election that he won.
“A coup in Kenya has just been done by the four people in the Supreme Court,” Kenyatta said in a live, televised speech delivered mostly in Kiswahili. “(The court is saying) ‘numbers don’t matter, it is processes that matter.&#8217;”
The court’s decision on Sept. 1 was the first time a judicial body has canceled the election of an African president and the ruling sent shockwaves through the country and beyond.
The court ordered a re-run within 60 days between Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who had rejected the result of the Aug. 8 vote and challenged it in court. The election board had declared Kenyatta the winner by 1.4 million votes.
The re-run is tentatively set for Oct. 17 in a vote being watched for any sign of instability. Kenya, a Western ally, has East Africa’s richest economy and is hub for diplomacy, security and trade in a region often battered by conflict.
The date for the re-run now looks unlikely since election officials lack time to prepare.
The court’s detailed judgment given on Wednesday hinged on the failure of the election board to check electronic tallies, which are vulnerable to typos, against paper forms intended as a fail-safe backup before announcing results. Judges did not say they found evidence of rigging.
Kenyatta said he would respect the court’s decision but said it subverted the will of the people.
“We have reversed everything in this country by the decision of a few people. I don’t know how history will judge these gentlemen,” he said. “The citizen has been told he does not have a voice &#8230; If that is not dictatorship, then I don’t know what to say.”
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Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg
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Kenyan president says Supreme Court election ruling was ‘coup’

Kenyan police tear-gassed opposition supporters demonstrating near the Supreme Court on Wednesday as judges began to deliver a detailed ruling that criticised the election board for its performance in last month’s annulled presidential election.
Voters are anxious to find out whether the vote was voided on procedural grounds or whether there was evidence of systematic rigging. The court has already said in a brief Sept. 1 ruling that some tallying sheets were not signed or officially stamped.
Election board officials had said incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won by 1.5 million votes but that was rejected by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the 2017 election, as well as the previous two votes, were stolen from him.
The court ordered a fresh vote to be held within 60 days. Kenya has the region’s biggest economy and is a diplomatic and security hub for East Africa.
In the introduction to the detailed ruling on Wednesday, Judge Philomena Mwilu criticised the election board for refusing to comply with court orders to open its computer servers, saying it meant that opposition claims of hacking or manipulation could be true.
“Noncompliance or failure by the board to do as ordered must be held against it,” said Judge Philomena Mwilu.
Mwilu also said it appeared the board did not have all the necessary tally forms when they announced official results.
“The (board) cannot therefore be said to have verified the results,” she noted.
She also said the board should have made alternative arrangements to transmit scanned tally sheets quickly when it was clear that around a quarter of polling stations did not have access to internet via mobile phone.
Many of those polling stations were a short drive from areas with good network coverage, she said.
“It is an inexcusable contravention &#8230; of the election act,” that the forms were not quickly available, she said, noting officials said thousands of forms from polling stations were still unavailable four days after the official results were announced.
On Tuesday evening, Deputy President William Ruto tweeted: “So has CJ taken sides? Listening to the tone, language &amp; drift of (Chief Justice David) Maraga’s lecture the only phrase missing is NASA HAO! TIBIN! &amp; TIALALA!” &#8212; phrases that are a rallying call for the opposition coalition.
Earlier, the chief justice told a press conference that judges were getting death threats and the police were not offering adequate protection, an allegation that the chief of police denied.
Also on Tuesday, police also used tear gas to disperse supporters of the ruling party protesting outside the Supreme Court. In a couple of towns, ruling party supporters used stones to block main roads.
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Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo and Katharine Houreld; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg
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Kenya Supreme Court criticises election board in verdict on polls

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A French IT company that supplied the electronic system used in Kenya’s nullified election last month has told the country’s election board that its technology would not be ready to use again by the Oct. 17 date set for a re-run of the vote.
Earlier this month, Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified the results of the presidential election held on Aug.8 and ordered a new poll within 60 days. The election board then declared the re-run of the election would be held on Oct. 17.
In a letter from Paris-based OT-Morpho to Kenya’s election board, dated Sept. 18 and seen by Reuters, the company said the two electronic systems it supplied for the vote would have to be reinstalled for the re-run. “This represents a very significant amount of work, which cannot be secured by October 17,” the letter read.
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Reporting By Maggie Fick; Editing by Gareth Jones
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French IT firm says its technology won’t be ready for Oct 17 re-run of Kenya poll

Observers found some technical problems but no evidence of vote-rigging in Kenya’s presidential election last month, the European Union said on Thursday, based on random checks of tallies from polling stations.
The finding was announced as Kenya gears up for a re-run of the contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta and challenger Raila Odinga on Oct. 17, after the Supreme Court nullified Kenyatta’s victory citing irregularities in the tallying process.
Credible elections would boost Kenya’s role as East Africa’s richest economy and a stable Western ally in a region roiled by conflict. But problems with the vote could spark unrest: 1,200 people died in violence after a disputed 2007 election.
Bolstering the Supreme Court’s findings of technical irregularities, the EU said in a statement it had examined 1,558 randomly selected scanned polling station results forms from 82 constituencies. A small percentage were unreadable, others had mathematical mistakes, and others were missing data or signatures.
The country had nearly 41,000 polling stations and 290 constituencies.
<h3 data-reactid="47">BOYCOTT THREAT</h3>
Odinga alleged that the original vote was marred by fraud and is threatening to boycott the re-run unless some demands are met, including the resignation of key election board officials.
But the EU said it did not find anything indicating deliberate manipulation of the vote in the forms it examined. “There was little variation in the patterns of anomalies &#8230; and no obvious advantage to one camp or another.”
However, the observers noted that more than a quarter of polling stations were severely late in posting their manually completed tallying sheets online. In some cases they only did so after the legal deadline for the opposition to mount court challenges to the results had passed, they noted.
The EU urged the election commission to use standardised forms with security features like serial numbers to reduce the opportunities for confusion in the upcoming polls.
It said the electoral board must do a better job of publicly explaining the processes it would follow in tallying the vote.
In a separate development on Thursday, ruling party lawmaker Ngunjiri Wambugu filed a court petition seeking to have Chief Justice David Maraga removed for gross misconduct in connection with the annulment of the election.
“Chief Justice Maraga needs to be censured, I believe he has participated in gross misconduct, which is unprofessional. I believe that gross misconduct is trying to influence a presidential election,” Wambugu told reporters.
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Additional reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Mark Trevelyan
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EU: spot checks show confusion, not conspiracy in Kenyan election

Fitch Ratings’ negative outlook on Kenya’s sovereign debt could be withdrawn if a re-run presidential election goes “relatively” smoothly and debt to GDP levels fall, Fitch said on Thursday.
Fitch currently rates Kenya as B+ with a negative outlook, and this has not been altered since the decision by the Supreme Court to nullify the presidential election, citing irregularities.
A new election has been tentatively scheduled for Oct. 17. It means voters will again have to choose between President Uhuru Kenyatta, 55, and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, 72.
“If the second election goes relatively smoothly and &#8230; if they achieve a decline in their debt to GDP levels it could lead to a withdrawal of the negative outlook,” said Jan Friederich, a Fitch analyst for the Middle East and Africa.
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Reporting by Claire Milhench; editing by Marc Jones
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Fitch could stabilise Kenya’s rating if election re-run goes smoothly

Jeremiah Ogonda Asaka | Middle Tennessee State University
Kenya’s 2017 general election has been one of the most litigated general elections since the country’s first multiparty poll in 1992.
Just weeks before Election Day the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was still embroiled in court battles. In fact, days before the vote, it appeared in court at least twice.
In the first instance Kenya’s main opposition coalition – the National Super Alliance – alongside the Thirdway Alliance Party of Kenya challenged IEBC’s award of a ballot printing tender to Al Ghurair – a Dubai based firm.
The High Court of Kenya ruled for the plaintiffs effectively barring Al-Ghurair from printing the presidential ballot papers.
In its second appearance IEBC appealed the High Court ruling. This time the decision went its way. The Court of Appeal reversed the the lower court’s decision arguing that the election commission didn’t have time to find a new printer. The appeal’s court also ruled that the lower court should have barred Al-Ghurair from printing ballot papers for all elective seats and not just the presidential one.
After the second ruling, IEBC had the green light to print the ballot papers and conduct the general elections. Infamously, the presidential result was then invalidated by the Supreme Court triggering a fresh election slated for October 17, 2017.
The Supreme Court ruling was not just a victory for Kenyan democracy but for democracy everywhere. It underscored the independence of the judiciary, strength of public institutions, and Kenya’s deepening commitment to the rule of law. These lessons go well beyond Africa.
But despite the court’s decision, there are those who still maintain that President Uhuru Kenyatta won the election. The president himself was confident that he had garnered the most votes and he blasted the courtfor usurping the will of the Kenyan people, swearing to fix the problemin the Judiciary if he won the fresh election. His words were broadly interpreted as a direct attack on the judiciary.
Role of election observers questioned
Kenyatta’s remarks are at worst a direct attack on the judiciary and at best an indication that the Executive will interfere with judicial independence. That is a threat that Kenyan will have to contend with at home.
On the international stage, election observers are also facing a threat to their continued existence. The role and effectiveness of international election observation has been called into question after more than 400 observers gave the Kenyan election a clean bill of health. The Supreme Court decision has put them in a tight spot.
The Carter Center which sponsored the John Kerry-led observation team has praised the court decision as “both important and encouraging, because it highlights the independence of the Kenyan judiciary”, while trying to distance itself from any wrongdoing.
Media pundits across the continent and beyond have weighed in on the future of international election observation, some of them calling observer missions out for their formulaic rubber stamping of results. Whichever way one looks at it, the Supreme Court judgment is a stinging indictment on the international election observation enterprise.
Moving forward, election observer missions should address themselves to two key issues if they are to regain credibility. First, they must approach elections as a process rather than an event. In this way observer missions will be able to stagger their reporting to reflect the various phases of the electoral process.
In the Kenyan case for instance, observer mission would be expected to report separately on their findings. They would start by observing voter registration, voting, vote counting and tallying, before reporting on results transmission and verification process, and the announcement of results. A comprehensive report of findings would be made available once the election was over.
Second, observers must contend with the new African election reality that includes a strong information, communication and technology component. It is foolish to observe an electronic electoral process using the same approaches that were used to observe manual election.
Further compounding this issue for the observation industry is the fact that a number of African elections are now hybrids that integrate electronic and manual aspects. This is something that election observer missions must quickly come to terms with in order to update their mode of operation.
Next steps for Kenya
Kenya’s 2017 general election court rulings are significant in two ways. First, they highlight the functioning nature of Kenya’s democracy, which includes checks and balances. In this respect, the Judiciary has emerged as a strong, independent democratic institution. Second, the Supreme Court has to a large extent restored Kenyans’ confidence in their country’s judicial system.
Interesting times lie ahead for Kenya as it prepares for a fresh presidential poll now slated for October 17, 2017. The opposition alliance led by Raila Odinga has already demanded for the reconstitution of IEBCbefore the October poll.
On their part, Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and their Jubilee Party have vowed to ensure that the IEBC conducts the fresh poll as presently constituted. As things stand, Kenya still has a long road to travel before the current election dispute is resolved.
That notwithstanding, Kenyans have a date with destiny. The Supreme Court ruling has granted Kenyans another opportunity to decide the path their country will take. It is now anyone’s guess what the result of a fresh election will be. One thing is certain, though, the October 17 presidential election will have long lasting ramifications for Kenya’s maturing democracy.
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This article was first published in The Conversation.

Op-Ed: How will the Supreme Court’s historic ruling impact the country’s democracy

Kenya’s election commission said on Tuesday that different staff will be in charge of the Oct. 17 re-run of the presidential election, after the country’s top court last week nullified the result of the August vote.
The Supreme Court ordered on Friday that the vote be re-run within 60 days, saying incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory by 1.4 million votes was undermined by irregularities in the process. Kenyatta was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati said in a statement on Tuesday that it had appointed for three months a project coordinator and officials to run the information technology, logistics, operations and training as well as the national tallying centre during the re-run.
“The appointment takes immediate effect,” Chebukati said.
The appointments were announced hours after opposition leader Raila Odinga said his coalition would not participate in the re-run unless some officials were removed and its voting technology audited.
Chebukati’s statement did not mention those who previously held the positions.
Kenyatta responded to Odinga’s demands by saying there was nowhere in law that required the electoral body to consult Odinga.
Odinga’s conditions for participating in the repeat presidential election included the removal of six officials at the election board. He wants criminal investigations to be opened against them.
“You cannot do a mistake twice and expect to get different results,” Odinga told reporters. “A number of the officials of the commission should be sent home, some of them should be investigated for the heinous crimes they committed.”
The opposition also said it was planning to file dozens of challenges to results from races lower down the ticket, including legislative and local seats contested in the Aug. 8 vote.
<h3 data-reactid="52">COURT CASES</h3>
The Supreme Court ruling, the first time in Africa that a court had overturned the re-election of a sitting president, was hailed by Odinga’s supporters as “historic”.
Analysts have said it is likely to lead to some short-term volatility in East Africa’s biggest economy, but could build confidence in institutions longer-term.
On Monday, the election board said it would hold new elections on Oct. 17. But Odinga said he wanted elections held on Oct. 24 or 31 instead.
Odinga’s National Super Alliance said in a letter to the chairman of the election commission that before the new vote is held, it needs to audit the technology used to conduct August’s election and give an assurance it will be transparent in its conduct.
“There will be no elections on the 17th of October until the conditions that we have spelt out in the statement are met,” Odinga said.
Kenyatta rebuffed Odinga’s demands. “There is no legal requirement that Raila be consulted. I was neither consulted. Kenya doesn’t belong to one man,” he said in a statement sent by his office.
Odinga has lost the last three presidential elections. Each time, he has said the vote was rigged against him.
A row over a 2007 poll, which Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic bloodshed that killed more than 1,200 people.
The opposition also plans to lodge 62 court cases contesting governorship, lawmaker, and local seats, spokeswoman Kathleen Openda told Reuters.
At least 33 court cases were filed contesting election results before the presidential election was annulled, said Andrew Limo, spokesman for the election board.
The judiciary said in a statement that by Tuesday a total 66 cases had been filed before various courts challenging the outcomes of such seats countrywide. The board received challenges to 189 results in 2013.
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Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by David Lewis and Katharine Houreld; Editing by George Obulutsa and Alison Williams
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Kenya’s election body appoints key personnel for presidential vote re-run

Dominic Burbidge | University of Oxford
The Kenyan Supreme Court has found that the August 8 presidential election result is invalid. It blames the electoral commission, not the declared winner, Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenya’s leading newspaper praises the decision as a step towards the rule of law, but I am less sure about what this means for the ability of the political establishment to stick to the terms of the country’s constitution.
The Supreme Court has given the country 60 days to hold fresh elections. The time period is in accordance with section 140 (3) of the Constitution, but the court failed to tell the public exactly what the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had done wrong. This leaves Kenya with a compromised commission rerunning an election.
Chief Justice David Maraga noted that the court had previously failed to provide a full judgment on the 2013 elections and this had not been received well. He then did exactly the same. Of course, the court had to provide a judgment on the opposition’s petition within 14 days, as stipulated by the Constitution. This is the period before the president-elect is inaugurated. The court would have sparked a constitutional crisis if it had not made any decision.
But by not explaining how the IEBC has failed, the court has created a problem. It’s impossible to organise the next election and reform the commission in the time given.
<h2>Time pressure</h2>
The court gave itself up to 21 more days to deliver its full judgment. This would leave the country with only 39 days before the fresh election. Already, opposition leader Raila Odinga has declared that his coalition will refuse to participate in presidential elections under the current leadership of the IEBC.
But, as a newspaper commentator observes, it’s just not feasible to remove IEBC commissioners without a tribunal, which is then reviewed by parliament. Complicating matters further, three citizens have filed a separate petition to ask the courts to remove certain IEBC officials over their wrongdoing.
Even once the full judgment is handed down within 21 days of the ruling, it probably won’t indicate criminality at the level of individuals. The Supreme Court was asked only to determine the validity of the election overall. Its full judgment can indicate how the process of the election must be improved.
The election was judged to be void because the electoral commission was at fault. This suggests it must change its procedures – and perhaps its personnel – if better elections are to take place. A new election must avoid the errors of the previous one.
Political scholar Gabrielle Lynch explains some of the corrections that have to be made. These include the process for transmitting results, the use of security forces and the uneven use of state resources.
Few of these suggested corrections will be feasible within the allotted timeframe.
<h2>Serious problems</h2>
Indeed, the problems are serious. Months before the election was held, the courts ordered the IEBC to stop printing ballot papers, because ofclaims that the Dubai-based firm Ghurair held too many links to Kenyatta.
The claim against Ghurair was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. But part of the IEBC’s successful defence against the court order was the time pressure of having to hold an election in a few months’ time. If time pressure was a valid reason then, why would it not be now? Why would an even more rushed election be credible?
The murder of the IEBC’s IT manager, Chris Msando, will now be under even closer scrutiny by the media. But even if the crime was directly related to the muddled tallying of votes, there isn’t time before the rerun to find individuals guilty. It is highly unlikely the full Supreme Court judgment will touch upon this tense topic. And that further reduces the credibility of the current IEBC.
<h2>Credibility concerns</h2>
The wider concerns with the IEBC date back to the “Chickengate” scandal. A UK court found a UK firm had bribed the IEBC (then the Interim Independent Electoral Commission) to get the contract to print ballot papers for the 2010 Kenyan constitutional referendum.
The UK co-conspirators were found guilty. But no-one from the Kenyan side was put behind bars by Kenyan courts. This created mistrust of the IEBC leaders. The current crisis will revive past anxieties like these, but leave no time for meaningful reform.
In Kenyan elections, local witnesses must sign the official forms to say the local tally is accurate. Central tallying organised electronically must then match with these local forms. The election is considered free and fair if this is done properly. The Supreme Court has ruled that both the IEBC as a whole and its chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, are responsible for the failure on 8 August.
Chebukati has refused to stand down. His response doesn’t boost public confidence in the institution. If the public is to trust the rerun, he must go.
<h2>Asking for more time</h2>
The IEBC should then petition the Supreme Court to give it more time.
It was done before, when the 2013 election was delayed because of the difficulty of implementing aspects of the new Constitution.
Section 86 of the Constitution requires the IEBC to collate the results of an election openly and accurately. At present, it can’t meet this requirement because it does not know what it must do differently from before. The IEBC should therefore depend on Section 86 when it asks the Supreme Court for more time.
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This article was first published in The Conversation.

Kenya’s Supreme Court has given an impossible deadline for the repeat election

Kenya’s election commission on Monday set Oct. 17 as the date for a new vote ordered by the Supreme Court when it annulled an August poll won by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The election will feature Kenyatta who is running for a second term and opposition leader Raila Odinga, the commission said.
A presidential spokesman said the government will not replace the election board ahead of the election, setting up a potential showdown between the government and the opposition.
Kenyatta won the Aug. 8 vote by 1.4 million votes. The court on Friday said the election commission had not followed proper procedures and ordered it to hold a new vote within 60 days. It did not stipulate any personnel changes.
Kenya’s election commission on Monday set Oct. 17 as the date for a new vote ordered by the Supreme Court when it annulled an August poll won by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The election will feature Kenyatta who is running for a second term and opposition leader Raila Odinga, the commission said.
A presidential spokesman said the government will not replace the election board ahead of the election, setting up a potential showdown between the government and the opposition.
Kenyatta won the Aug. 8 vote by 1.4 million votes. The court on Friday said the election commission had not followed proper procedures and ordered it to hold a new vote within 60 days. It did not stipulate any personnel changes.
Spokesmen for Kenyatta and the election board rejected a change to the entire board.
“The Supreme Court gave clear guidance on who will hold the repeat election. You cannot accept one half of the verdict of the Supreme Court and not the other,” said presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu.
Andrew Limo, a spokesman for the electoral board, said the situation was complicated by the fact that the court would not release its full verdict until Sept. 21.
Judges read short remarks criticizing the process but did not go into detail, saying they needed more time to consider more than 80,000 pages submitted as evidence.
“If you want to punish people, you must have a basis for it. But the only basis is the full judgment of the Supreme Court, which will not be out until 21 days,” Limo said.
“Otherwise the commission could get into a position of defending itself in court from people who were dismissed.”
Odinga’s spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
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Editing by George Obulutsa and Matthew Mpoke Bigg
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Kenya Re-Election

Kenyan assets tumble after opposition leader pulls out of election

Kenya vote in balance as crisis deepens after Odinga quits

Kenyan opposition leader withdraws from repeat presidential poll

Hundreds of protesters march to Kenyan election board HQ

Police teargas Kenyan vote protesters, crowds gather in cities

The thin line between electoral credibility and political stability in Kenya

Kenya’s ruling party moves to amend election law ahead of vote re-run

Kenya election board: presidential re-run to be held on October 26

Kenyan president says Supreme Court election ruling was ‘coup’

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French IT firm says its technology won’t be ready for Oct 17 re-run of Kenya poll

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Op-Ed: How will the Supreme Court’s historic ruling impact the country’s democracy

Kenya’s election body appoints key personnel for presidential vote re-run

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Kenyan election commission sets Oct. 17 as date for new vote

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