JOHANNESBURG, October 26 (ANA) – Kenya’s much anticipated and controversial election re-run has kicked off to a shaky start with some polling stations in opposition areas not opening and opposition leader Raila Odinga calling for the establishment of a resistance movement, according to media reports.
AP reported Thursday morning that following calls by Odinga – who is boycotting the re-run of the August elections annulled by the Supreme Court due to irregularities – the failure of some polling stations to open reflected a bitterly divided East African country.
Odinga warned prior to Thursday that unless there was significant reform of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission he wouldn’t partake in the elections while President Uhuru Kenyatta said reform could take place after polling day and that voting was paramount.
In Kenya’s third largest city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, many polling stations were closed with reports of opposition supporters blocking roads.
A beefed-up police presence was evident in areas identified by the police as hotspots.
The police had hitherto warned that they would take extra precautions to protect voters trying to physically reach the polling stations, as well as the polling stations themselves.
However, clashes had already broken out early Thursday morning with police firing tear gas at opposition supporters in Kibera, a Nairobi slum.
In areas where Kenyatta has support voters have already turned out, but the turnout was significantly lower than that of the August 8 elections.
In Gatunda, Kenyatta’s hometown, voters lined up before dawn as heavy rain disrupted electricity and the delivery of ballot papers.
The tumultuous events leading up to the election re-run and the constitutional crisis that could result have led to analysts questioning the coming days.
What exactly does Odinga mean when he said on Wednesday that he would establish a resistance movement? In Africa, this has often meant armed opposition to governments.
Perhaps this was clarified by his later comment that as leader of the National Super Alliance party he would lead a civil disobedience campaign against the ruling Jubilee Party.
But in an interview with AFP Edward Kisiangani, a professor of political history at Nairobi’s Kenyatta University, Kisiangani said there were several questions that needed to be addressed when looking to the future.
He said that since Kenya became independent in 1963, political and economic power has been concentrated in the hands of the Kikuyus, the largest of the country’s 44 ethnic groups. Odinga is a Luo.
Expanding on how much Kenyan society was divided, Kisiangani said this fact required urgent reform to ensure fairer power-sharing.
“There have been such divisions since independence, but this is unprecedented. We are more divided than we have ever been before. It’s about the crisis of sharing political power, it has never been very smooth,” said Kisiangani.
The professor said the crisis could be resolved by restoring confidence such as making it a criminal offence to hire family and friends for government jobs, and making it impossible to use elections to “dominate or threaten others”.
Kisiangani suggested other changes include a need for the presidency to be structurally reformed to hand power back to the people. He also mooted legal measures to weaken the presidency and strengthen institutions.
“A way of doing it is to create a federal constitution which will empower more the governors and will increase the allocation of resources, budget to the counties,” said the professor.
“We could have a referendum in the next one year and make sure that the problems we have do not reoccur.”
– African News Agency (ANA), editing by Moses Mudzwiti
