Kenyan crisis escalates as opp set to inaugurate leader

Bloomberg

Kenya’s main opposition alliance defied warnings of a crackdown and prepared to inaugurate its leader as a so-called people’s president, threatening to deepen the East African nation’s political crisis.
Thousands of National Super Alliance (Nasa) supporters thronged Uhuru Park on the edge of Nairobi’s city center by late Tuesday morning, awaiting the arrival of their leader Raila Odinga. The streets of the city were quieter than usual. There was no visible police presence at the rally, despite government warnings that swearing in Odinga would amount to treason. Live broadcasts of the event were cut off.
“We are here to swear in Raila as the fifth president of the Republic of Kenya,” Francis Otieno, a 27-year-old Nairobi resident, said at the gathering. “We recognize Raila as president of Kenya.”
Nasa is inaugurating Odinga and his deputy, Kalonzo Musyoka, after rejecting the outcome of a repeat presidential vote in October in which President Uhuru Kenyatta secured a second term. The alliance says it has evidence that Odinga won an Aug. 8 election that was later annulled by the Supreme Court after the electoral commission failed to disprove an opposition claim the ballot was rigged.
The standoff could provoke protests, further police crackdowns and bloodshed, while deepening already dangerous levels of polarization in Kenya, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a statement. At least 92 people died in clashes between Kenyan security forces and opposition supporters during last year’s election period, according to the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights.
“Odinga should call off the ceremony; President Kenyatta should agree to an audit of Kenya’s electoral authorities,” the ICG said. “Kenyan leaders also should consider some form of national convention to discuss reforms to lower the stakes of political competition.”
Shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange were little changed and the shilling traded steady against the dollar by 11:09 a.m. in Nairobi.
Kenya’s financial markets “may be a little slow due to local institutions running on skeleton staff in case the political events turn messy,” said Kenneth Minjire, head of securities at Genghis Capital Ltd.