Kenya oppn withdraws from election

Bloomberg

Kenyan opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga withdrew from a rerun of the country’s annulled presidential election, pushing the East African nation towards a constitutional crisis.
Odinga, the leader of the National Super Alliance, said he’s pulling out of the race because the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission refuses to discuss proposed changes to its personnel and procedures to ensure the vote is free and fair. The announcement came as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party proposed amendments to the electoral law that would allow the authority to declare a winner if one of the contestants withdraws from the contest.
“We are going to a major political crisis, a major constitutional crisis,” Professor Peter Wanyande, a political scientist at the University of Nairobi, said by phone. “In a democracy, which we are by virtue of our constitution, you cannot hold an election with only one candidate.” Uncertainty about the rerun has unnerved investors and clouded the outlook for an economy that’s already struggling to expand because of a prolonged drought. Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy and the world’s largest tea exporter, is a regional hub for companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and General Electric Co. Tullow Oil Plc is among firms that may exploit an estimated 1 billion barrels of crude reserves discovered in the north of the country.

Worst Performer
Kenya’s Nairobi Securities Exchange All Share Index is the worst performing index in Africa and the fifth worst performer in the world since Sept. 1, when the vote was nullified by the Supreme Court. Kenya’s currency was unchanged at 103.30 per dollar and the yield on the nation’s Eurobonds fell four basis points to 6.31 percent by 5:22 pm in Nairobi.
Odinga’s withdrawal comes after his alliance failed to reach an agreement with the electoral commission in talks about changing the ways the authority will handle the vote. The court annulled the election, which Odinga lost, after saying the commission committed “irregularities and illegalities.”
“All indications are that the election scheduled for October 26 will be worse than the previous one,” Odinga told. “Considering the interests of the people of Kenya, the region and the world at large, we believe that all will be best served by Nasa vacating its presidential candidature in the election.”