Election officials have been locked in crisis meetings since the decision, as debate raged over what Odinga’s move could mean for a dramatic election saga that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta’s August 8 victory annulled by the Supreme Court.
Kenyatta insists an October 26 do-over must go ahead.
But longtime rival Odinga says his withdrawal legally forces election officials to begin the entire process from scratch — a move that leaves more time for his reform demands to be met.
To maintain pressure, his opposition National Super Alliance coalition called supporters to the street, saying protests would take place every day from next week.
In Odinga’s western stronghold of Kisumu, thousands of protesters took to the street, blocking roads, setting heaps of tyres alight and engaging in running battles with police.
In Nairobi police briefly teargassed protesters who threw stones at passing cars.
However, the crowd later dispersed peacefully after speeches from opposition leaders, helped along by the first heavy rainfall of the season.
Kenya’s Supreme Court last month annulled the August election citing widespread irregularities in the counting process and mismanagement by election officials, and called for a re-run within 60 days.
The decision was hailed across the globe and held up as an opportunity to deepen Kenyan democracy, however the process quickly turned sour, with increasingly ugly rhetoric including attacks by Kenyatta on the judiciary.
Odinga demanded deep reforms that the election commission (IEBC) said were impossible to deliver in the constitutionally mandated period.
“All indications are that the election scheduled for 26 October will be worse than the previous one,” he said, announcing his withdrawal Tuesday.
Source: ( AFP )
via: INFORMATION NIGERIA
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