US, UK offer help in Kenya official murder probe

Bloomberg

The US and UK embassies in Kenya offered to help investigate the murder of a key electoral official a week before the East African nation holds presidential elections.
The body of Chris Msando, a systems development manager at the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission who went missing on the night of July 28, was found on Monday at a mortuary in the capital, Nairobi. Msando had been scheduled to lead a test of an electronic election-results transmission system
on Monday, according to the main opposition National
Super Alliance.
“The US and the UK are gravely concerned by the murder,” US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec and UK High Commissioner Nic Hailey
said in a joint statement emailed from Nairobi. “We have offered our assistance in the investigation.”
Elections in Kenya are fraught times for investors because a dispute over the outcome of a 2007 vote triggered two months of violence that left 1,100 people dead. Last month, Kenya’s main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, accused the IEBC of plotting to rig the election. The former prime minister, who’s challenging incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, has warned there may be violence if the electoral authority fails to ensure this year’s process, to be held on Aug. 8, is credible.
“It is critical that Kenya have free, fair, credible and peaceful elections on Aug. 8, and protection for IEBC staff is essential to achieving this goal,” the
ambassadors said.