Kenya's Supreme Court nullifies presidential election result

Kenya's Supreme Court on Friday declared President Uhuru Kenyatta's election win invalid due to irregularities committed by the election board and ordered a new vote in 60 days.

"The declaration [of Kenyatta's win] is invalid, null and void," said Judge David Maranga, announcing the verdict backed by four out of the six judges.

"The first respondent [the election board] failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution."

On Friday afternoon, Kenyatta said: "I personally disagree with the ruling that has been made today, but I respect it."

He urged Kenyans to remain peaceful, despite the ruling that overturned his election win.

TRT World’s Gladys Njoroge-Morgan reports.

A historic day

The decision to cancel the result of the August 8 election is the first of its kind in Kenya's history. It sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

East Africa's biggest economy has a history of disputed elections. A row over the 2007 poll, which Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic bloodshed in which more than 1,200 were killed.

"It's a very historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension the people of Africa," said opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who had challenged the vote. "For the first time in the history of African democratisation, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular election of a president. This is a precedent-setting ruling."

The decision to cancel the result, the first of its kind in Kenya's history, sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Odinga said the election commission should resign and some officials should face criminal prosecution.

"It is now clear that the entire edifice of the [election board] is rotten. Clear evidence shows that the commission was taken over by criminals ... they must face criminal prosecution," he said, naming particular officials. "We are ready but cannot repeat the election with this commission." 

Stock exchange halts

Kenya's stock exchange halted trading briefly midway through Friday's session after blue chip shares plummeted following the Supreme Court's decision to annul the result of the Aug. 8 presidential election.

Trading restarted at 1000 GMT, Nairobi Securities Exchange chief executive Geoffrey Odundo told Reuters.

"When there is a movement in the market beyond a certain limit, we have to stop trading to allow the market to process the information," Odundo said.

He said shares had fallen by the 10 percent limit, which requires a halt.

Real time data is usually not available for the market apart from for individual stocks.

Telecoms operator Safaricom, the biggest company by market cap, fell 4.9 percent to trade at 24.00 Kenyan shillings ($0.2328) per share, traders said.

Election board vows to uphold election integrity

The chairman of Kenya's election board said on Friday it would make personnel changes and prosecute any staff involved in deliberate tampering with last month's vote, after the Supreme Court declared it invalid.

"To protect the integrity of [the] sovereign will of the people the commission intends to make internal changes to personnel," said Wafula Chebukati, who said he was not resigning. 

No sign of manipulation

International observers had said they saw no sign of manipulation of voting and tallying at polling stations. Several observers said the opposition did not conduct a parallel tally and had not challenged results with complete data of their own.

Many voters in the west of Kenya, Odinga's stronghold, and along the coast, where there is traditionally large support for the opposition, feel neglected by the central government and shut out of power.

Odinga has contested the last three elections and lost each time. Each time, he has claimed the votes were marred by rigging. In 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed his petition.

This time, his team focused on proving that the process for tallying and transmitting results was flawed, rather than proving how much of the vote was rigged.

The August 8 election was one of the most expensive in Africa with some experts saying it had cost the country almost $1 billion to stage -- a sum that the country can ill afford a second time around with a struggling economy and a severe drought. Others believe there will be some short-term pain, but the longer-term benefits of a credible election and an independent judiciary outweigh the costs of holding a second poll.

TRT World's Mmalegabe Motsepe reports.