Kenyatta sworn in again. Raila Odinga kicks. Photo credit/BBC
Kenyatta Sworn-in for Second term, Raila Odinga Kicks
Uhuru Kenyatta has been sworn in for his second term as the President of Kenya. Again, opposition leader, Raila Odinga and his supporters boycotted the ceremony which held at the capital, Nairobi.
BBC reports that the ceremony took place in a packed stadium with police driving back other Kenyatta supporters trying to get in without seats. Riot police were also deployed in another part of the city to stop a rally by opposition supporters.
Raila’s supporters had planned a parallel inuguration today where Raila would be inaugurated alonside Kenyatta. But on Sunday, Raila declined support for parallel inauguration.
Although reports say there were scenes of chaos outside Nairobi’s Kasarani sports stadium when people without seats tried to rush in and were driven back by police with tear gas, and on horseback, Raila Odinga’s decline for parallel inauguration would have reduced clashes to the barest minimum.
Big screens had been promised so that tens of thousands of people could watch the ceremony from outside the stadium but no screens were provided, AFP news agency reports.
“I just want to see President Uhuru Kenyatta because I voted for him,” Janet Wambua, who was among the angry crowd, told agency. “Why are we being beaten?”
Incumbent president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta won the disputed presidential election, but he may not have won peace for the east African country.
Kenyatta took 98 percent of the total ballots cast. His closest rival, Raila Odinga pulled out of the process, citing high-handedness and corruption of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and called on his supporters to stay away from the election.
Kenyatta will have a hard time trying to bring peace back to Kenya. About 50 persons have been reported killed in several clashes relating to the election.
Chairman of the IEBC, Wafula Chebukati said Kenyatta received 7,483,895 votes to Odinga’s 73,228 — less than one percent of votes cast.
Out of 19.6 million registered voters, only 7.6 million ballots were cast. This indicates that Odinga’s supporters heeded his call to away from the election. But that the avoidance of the poll was not a subscription to peace.
This newspaper reported that Kenyatta would not have had his way if Odinga had not pulled out of the process. It could be recalled that Kenyatta’s winning margin—10 percentage points, or 1.4 million votes at the August election was relatively low. That was despite the rigging as pronounced by the Supreme Court. This goes to say that Odinga could have had better chances of winning the election at the rerun if he had not announced his pull- out.
Following the Supreme Court’s judgement on September 20th when Justice Philomena Mwilu said the election was “neither transparent nor verifiable.” And Chief Justice David Maraga said result verifications forms were incomplete and unsigned. Odinga, demanded more substantial reform at the IEBC and called on its Chairman Ezra Chiloba and other leaders to resign.