Elections will go on as planned- Kenyatta replies Odinga

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has dismissed claims by opposition leader, Raila Odinga that the re-run elections slated for October 17 will be boycotted by the NASA coalition.

Odinga, 74, had made the threats on Tuesday, a day after the electoral body announced a date for the rerun ordered by the country’s supreme court.

But President Kenyatta issued a rebuttal to NASA’s boycott threats saying that the process will go on as planned by the IEBC – the elections body.

Opposition leader Odinga rejects Kenyan election re-run date https://t.co/iWKQhKkWEy

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“There is no legal requirement that Raila be consulted. I was neither consulted. Kenya doesn’t belong to one man,” he said in a statement sent by his office.

“What we are saying is, the courts said that according to the laws, the elections should be repeated in 60 days, is that true? Yesterday the IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) told us that the elections are going to be on the 17th. I want to say it here that the way we were ready on the 8th of August, we are ready for the 17th,” Kenyatta told supporters at a rally in the capital, Nairobi.

Odinga has lost the last three presidential elections. Each time, he has said the vote was rigged against him.

The opposition also plans to lodge 62 court cases contesting governorship, lawmaker, and local seats, spokeswoman Kathleen Openda told Reuters.

At least 33 court cases were filed contesting election results before the presidential election was annulled, said Andrew Limo, spokesman for the election board. Others had been filed since but he did not have the updated figure.

Limo said the numbers had not yet reached the same level as during the 2013 elections, when the board received challenges to 189 results.

REUTERS