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Kenyan Opposition Threatens To Boycott Rerun, Says IEBC Can’t Protect Votes

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Sunday his coalition would only go to the election when they are sure the electoral commission will not … Continue reading Kenyan Opposition Threatens To Boycott Rerun, Says IEBC Can’t Protect Votes


File photo: Raila Odinga
File photo: Raila Odinga

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Sunday his coalition would only go to the election when they are sure the electoral commission will not take a side, adding that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) cannot protect their votes.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday (September 1) that the election board had committed irregularities that rendered the August 8 vote invalid and overturned incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory, which had been by a margin of 1.4 million votes.

Odinga, who also contested the presidency in 2007 and 2013, repeated his statement after Friday’s court ruling that the opposition would not participate in the re-run of the election without changes to the election commission. On Friday he called for the commission to resign and face criminal prosecution.

“We have said that you cannot force Kenyans to go to the polls that is being supervised by thieves, we will not accept. We cannot put our goats in a cackle of hyenas, a hyena cannot shepherd goats and they (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) cannot protect our votes,” Odinga said,

“We will only go to the elections when we are sure that the ones organizing the elections are people who will not side with one side or the other.”

Kenyatta insists the poll should be re-run with the current electoral board, while the opposition wants the board dismissed.

Odinga also called on Kenyatta and his supporters to respect the judiciary.

He said, “Why is it that this time they don’t want to accept the ruling from the courts? Why don’t they want to accept? Why are they now insulting the judiciary? They are the ones who told us that If we had issues to go to the courts. Did we go to the courts? Did we give our evidence? Were the courts satisfied? Now what is the issue?”