MOSYLOADEDBLOGNEWS
Police tear- gassed opposition supporters
in two of Kenya ’s biggest cities on
Monday as they protested at the
country ’s election watchdog, which is
due to referee a re - run presidential poll
this month .
Hundreds of opposition protesters in
the capital Nairobi , the western city of
Kisumu and the port of Mombasa
demonstrated against the current
Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission (IEBC ).
Opposition leaders say the panel , in its
present form , should be barred from
managing the October 26 vote after the
Supreme Court annulled the original
August election , citing widespread
“ illegalities and irregularities” .
The judges ruled the IEBC had produced
a presidential election that was “ neither
transparent nor verifiable.”
Raila Odinga , head of the opposition
National Super Alliance (NASA ), has
threatened to boycott the re - run if the
election body is not overhauled and
senior officials sacked.
He called last month for biweekly
protests against the IEBC , beginning
Monday.
In the opposition stronghold of Kisumu
on the shores of Lake Victoria , up to 500
demonstrators erected barricades and
burned tyres before police used tear gas,
baton charges and warning shots to
disperse the crowd .
“ We will not stop demonstrating until
Chiloba is out,” said Hillary Ojwang,
referring to the controversial chief
executive of the IEBC , Ezra Chiloba,
whom opposition lawyers want
prosecuted .
In downtown Nairobi , police played cat-
and - mouse with demonstrators , firing
tear gas whenever they formed groups .
In the seaside city of Mombasa ,
hundreds of opposition supporters
gathered peacefully and were not
confronted by police .
Since the annulment of President Uhuru
Kenyatta ’s victory , in which he was
credited with 54 percent of the vote,
both sides have engaged in increasingly
bitter rhetoric.
In a joint statement on Monday
ambassadors — including from the
United States and European Union —
said they were “ deeply concerned by the
deterioration in the political
atmosphere” and urged “ genuine
dialogue ” with the IEBC .
Kenyatta ’s Jubilee Party government ,
which has a majority in parliament , has
ruled out any major shake- up of the
IEBC.
Instead, it wants to push through
changes to the electoral law that
opposition critics say will simply
legalise some of the faults cited by the
Supreme Court .
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