Kenyatta says Supreme Court decision to annul election a ‘coup’ against the people
Kenyatta says Supreme Court decision to annul election a ‘coup’ against the people
The decision by the Supreme Court in Kenya to annul the last presidential election has been tagged as a “coup” against the will of the people by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Delivering his harshest rhetoric yet in the wake of the Aug. 8 vote, Kenyatta said the coup was carried out by four people in the Supreme Court and his comments are coming at a time Kenya’s political temperature is heating up, reviving fears of political violence.
“A coup in Kenya has just been done by the four people in the Supreme Court,” Kenyatta said in a televised meeting with supporters, delivered mostly in Kiswahili. “(The court is saying) ‘numbers don’t matter, it is processes that matter.’”
Kenyatta’s remarks are coming a day after Kenya’s electoral board set October 26th as a new date for the presidential re-run.
The new date was announced after a French IT company that supplied the electronic system used in the nullified election told the country’s election board that its technology would not be ready to use again on the initial October 17 date of re-run.
In a letter from Paris-based OT-Morpho to Kenya’s election board, dated Sept. 18 and seen by Reuters, the company said the two electronic systems it supplied for the vote would have to be reinstalled for the re-run. “This represents a very significant amount of work, which cannot be secured by October 17,” the letter read.
Two weeks ago, Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati revealed that key personnel for Kenya’s presidential re-run have been appointed meaning that different staff will be in charge of the re-run.
Chebukati revealed in a statement that it had appointed for three months a project coordinator and officials to run the information technology, logistics, operations and training as well as the national tallying centre during the re-run.
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