Observers give Kenya vote thumbs up
► EU mission says ‘ no sign of manipulation’ despite opposition protests
International observers on Thursday praised the handling of Kenya’s presidential election, with the EU mission saying it had seen no sign of manipulation despite opposition complaints and scattered protests.
Police fired tear gas at rock- throwing opposition supporters in one Nairobi neighborhood, residents said, but most of the capital and the rest of the country were calm after four people were killed in election- related violence on Wednesday.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has taken a commanding lead but his rival, veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, has rejected provisional electronic results, saying figures released so far are “fictitious” and election systems had been hacked.
As they wait for final results to be tallied and confirmed, many Kenyans are nervous of a repeat of the clashes that killed about 1,200 people after a bitterly contested 2007 election.
In its first assessment of Tuesday’s poll, the EU’s election observer mission said it had seen no signs of “centralized or localized manipulation” of the voting process.
Marietje Schaake, head of the mission, said the EU would provide an analysis of the tallying process in a later report.
Provisional results released by the election commission showed Kenyatta had won 54.3 percent of votes, ahead of Odinga on 44.8 percent – a lead of 1.4 million votes with 97 percent of polling stations reported.
John Kerry, the former US secretary of state heading the Carter Center observer mission, said the election system, which is ultimately based on the original paper ballots cast, remained solid and all sides should wait for electronic tal- lies to be double- checked against hard copies.
“The process that was put in place is proving its value thus far,” Kerry said. “Kenya has made a remarkable statement to Africa and the world about its democracy and the character of that democracy. Don’t let anybody besmirch that.”
Kenyan election commission head Ezra Chiloba on Wednesday rejected Odinga’s claims.
Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president in charge of the Africa Union observer mission, praised the poll so far.