Kenya
will hold a fresh presidential vote on October 17, the election
commission said Monday, after the country's Supreme Court overturned the
result of last month's poll won by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"A fresh presidential election will be held on the 17th of October 2017," said a statement signed by Wafula Chebukati, chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
"This is in conformity with the Supreme Court decision annulling the presidential election held on 8th August 2017."
Chebukati said only Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who brought the court challenge, would be on the ballot paper, along with their running mates.
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At
least one of the six other minor candidates who participated in
August's election immediately threatened to go to court insisting he be
included on next month's ballot.
On Friday, chief justice David Maraga
cancelled the results of the August poll saying the election commission
had failed to hold a legitimate election and that the results were
therefore "invalid, null and void".
He added that the IEBC had committed "irregularities and illegalities" in the transmission of results from polling stations to the national tally centre.
However, a full explanation of the court's reasoning has yet to be published.
"It
is imperative that a detailed judgement... is released in order to
allow the Commission to identify areas that require improvement," Chebukati said.
He called "for
patience and understanding among all stakeholders as we work together
to deliver free, fair, credible and peaceful elections."
Fourth time lucky?
Kenyatta
has committed to campaigning hard to win the new election while Odinga
has called for IEBC personnel to be replaced -- and prosecuted -- in
light of the court ruling.
Odinga's
National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition alleges that fraud affected
around a third of the 15.5 million votes cast last month, in which
Kenyatta was declared victor by a margin of 1.4 million, and accuses
IEBC officials of complicity in the rigging.
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This
was the third time in a row that Odinga had cried foul. The disputed
result of the 2007 election triggered widespread violence that left over
1,100 people dead while in 2013 the Supreme Court threw out Odinga's
challenge.
Friday's court ruling was
greeted with surprise in Kenya and elsewhere because the judiciary has
rarely shown such independence from the executive.
Afterwards
Odinga hailed the "historic" ruling while Kenyatta described the judges
as "crooks" but said he would abide by the decision.
The
run-up to the August 8 election was marred by the murder of a top IEBC
IT official and opposition allegations that rigging was certain.
Odinga
alleged fraud shortly after counting began, claiming the system
transmitting votes had been hacked, and that forms from polling stations
that were meant to back up the electronic results were not being
uploaded.
The August 11 declaration of
Kenyatta's victory with 54 percent of the vote sparked two days of
protests in the slums of Nairobi and Kisumu, traditional opposition
strongholds.
At least 21 people, including a baby and a nine-year-old girl, were killed, mostly by police, according to an AFP tally.
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