Kenya opposition leader Raila Odinga urged supporters to boycott Thursday's repeat presidential election and persuade their friends to do the same, saying his opposition movement would be transformed into a resistance movement against the government.

"From today we are transforming the NASA coalition into a resistance movement," he told a cheering crowd of thousands of people in Uhuru Park in the capital of Nairobi. He wants new elections held within 90 days, he said

The opposition leader's lawyer says it was not by accident that the Supreme Court did not have a quorum to hear an urgent appeal to postpone the Thursday's repeat presidential elections. 

Earlier today Kenya's Chief Justice David Maraga announced that one judge was unwell, another was abroad and unable to return in time and another judge was unable to come to court after her bodyguard was shot and injured on Tuesday night.

The top court’s failure to rule means Thursday’s much contested repeat presidential elections will proceed as scheduled. 

Protesters lit bonfires on the roads of Kisumu, the western city that is an Odinga stronghold, within minutes of the court announcement. Long lines formed in Kenyan supermarkets as people stock up on supplies ahead of the tension-filled vote.

Kenyatta wanted to prevent court hearing

Odinga's lawyer, James Orengo said President Uhuru Kenyatta had tried to prevent the court hearing by declaring public holidays on Wednesday and Thursday.

Orengo said that move didn't work because Chief Justice David Maraga ordered the courts to hear election petitions during the holidays.

Then Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu felt threatened when her driver was seriously wounded in a shooting.

Mwilu did not show up for the last-minute hearing.

Mwilu's driver, a police constable, was shot and seriously wounded on Tuesday evening when he went to buy flowers by assailants who tried force him back into the judge's official car.

He had just dropped the justice at her home. Many Kenyans saw this as intimidation of the courts.

Orengo said two justices of the Supreme Court who had dissented when the court ruled 4-2 to nullify Kenyatta's re-election also did not turn up.

In the end, only two justices showed up at the Supreme Court.

TRT World'sNicole Johnston has more from Nairobi.

“Justified rebellion”

The governor of Kisumu county, said people would be justified in rebellion if the vote went ahead on Thursday.

"If the government subverts the sovereign will of the people ... then people are entitled to rebel against this government," Anyang Nyong'o told reporters.

Earlier, opposition leader Raila Odinga repeatedly called for protests against an imminent election re-run saying it will not be free and fair because the election board has not made sufficient reforms after the Supreme Court annulled an earlier vote.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the August election.

The tension building ahead of the planned vote on Thursday has alarmed world leaders who are appealing for calm in Kenya, a linchpin of East African economic development. 

In the aftermath of the vote in August, dozens were killed, mostly shot by security forces.

The vote has troubled world leaders as in 2007, Kenya endured deadly ethnic-based violence after a disputed election that left more than 1,000 dead.