Kenya opposition alliance shuns court, vows protests urging new election

Bloomberg

Kenya’s main opposition alliance said it won’t challenge the results that gave President Uhuru Kenyatta a landslide victory in last week’s disputed election rerun in court and instead vowed to mobilize its supporters to press for a another vote.
“This election must not stand,” opposition leader Raila Odinga told reporters in Nairobi, the capital. “If allowed to stand, it will make a complete mockery of elections and might well be the end of the ballot as a means of instituting government in Kenya.” Musalia Mudavadi, a senior leader of Odinga’s four-party National Super
Alliance, said that while private citizens may challenge the election in court,
the coalition won’t take legal action against the vote.

ELECTION BOYCOTT
Kenyatta, 56, secured 98.3 percent of the vote in an Oct. 26 election that the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission said was free and fair, but was boycotted by Odinga, who described it as a sham. The electoral agency said the turnout dropped to 38.8 percent from 79 percent in the Aug. 8 contest, which the Supreme Court nullified after the electoral agency failed to disprove opposition claims of rigging.
The opposition’s decision to shun the legal process ups the ante in a violent standoff that has seen police and opposition supporters engaging in running street battles in Nairobi’s slums and Odinga strongholds in western Kenya, claiming about 78 lives since the initial vote in August.
Ethnic tensions have also flared between members of Odinga’s Luo community and Kenyatta’s Kikuyu group, raising fears of a repetition of the widespread violence that ensued after a contested 2007 vote and claimed at least 1,100 lives.

EU CONCERN
“There is an urgent need for dialog between the two sides, for institutions to be given the space and security to work with full independence, and for grievances to be addressed through democratic and judicial channels,” a European Union observer mission said in a statement.
Bond investors indicated that they view the declaration of Kenyatta’s
victory as the beginning of the end
of the crisis, with the yield on the
government’s international bonds due in 2024 tumbling 15 basis points to 6.16 percent since the announcement of the results.
Such optimism may be misplaced, according to Ben Payton, head of Africa at UK-based consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, who sees a strong likelihood of more violence in Odinga strongholds over coming days and further legal challenges to the election.
“Kenyatta will now rule over a country where huge swathes of the population believe he has usurped the presidency,” he said in a note to clients. “Even assuming Kenyatta survives in office, the government will face a loss of authority, particularly in western Kenya. Kenya’s ongoing electoral crisis demonstrates the reality that investors face an inherently volatile environment in East Africa’s largest economy.”