Police in running battles with opposition supporters in Kenya
Riot police engaged in clashes with opposition supporters in western Kenya after presidential candidate Raila Odinga claimed massive poll fraud had taken place.
A demonstrator jumps over a barricade set on fire in Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya, August 9, 2017.
Riot police engaged in running battles on Wednesday with protesters in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in western Kenya, as presidential aspirant Raila Odinga claimed massive poll fraud, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Police fired tear gas as several hundred protesters in the neighbourhood of Kondele – an epicentre of violence after disputed 2007 polls – set fire to barricades and tyres and placed rocks in the streets.
Demonstrators set barricades on fire in Kisumu, Kenya, August 9, 2017.
A police helicopter hovered overhead as riot police wielding shields, assault rifles and batons deployed two water trucks to put out the fires.
"If Raila is not the president, we can't have peace," one protester said shortly before tear gas sent the crowd running.
The protesters chanted: "No Raila, no peace", their rallying cry after both 2007 and 2013 elections which the veteran opposition leader claims were stolen from him.
In 2007 post-poll violence raged for two months, leaving 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.
Anti-riot policemen beat one of the protesters to disperse them in Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya, August 9, 2017.
Voting in Kenya's general elections passed without incident on Tuesday but as provisional results began ticking up on the election commission website. President Uhuru Kenyatta maintained a commanding lead with about 55 percent to Odinga's 44 percent.
Early Wednesday Odinga rejected the "fake" results, declaring "the system has failed."
He later detailed allegations of a massive hacking attack on the electronic tallying system, sending tensions soaring.
Anti-riot policemen disperse protesters in Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya, August 9, 2017.
"Uhuru is not the elected one, he must have rigged it," said Dickson Otieno, 30 as piles of tyres burned in the street nearby.
However, he said protests should be peaceful.
"The problem is between Uhuru and Raila and should not involve the common man," said Otieno.
In the early morning in Kisumu groups of mostly young men gathered on street corners, angrily discussing the results.
Demonstrators carry sticks and tree branches as they run along a street in Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya, August 9, 2017.
Steven Okeda, a 37-year-old primary school teacher, stood with others by a corrugated tin shack next to a fetid gutter in the poor, northern Kondele neighbourhood, a morning newspaper clutched in his hand.
"The voting was just okay, nothing was wrong, but the results that are going on, the transmission, that's where the problem is. What is happening here?" he asked. "Something is cooking."
"What we are saying is, Uhuru Kenyatta has stolen the election and we will not accept that," said Okeda.
Residents attack a man for apparently belonging to a different tribe, in the Mathare slum, Nairobi on August 9, 2017, as they protest against Kenya's national election results.
Tensions also soared in Odinga's strongholds in Nairobi.
In the Mathare, slum protesters placed burning barricades along a main road, while police patrolled and a helicopter flew overhead.
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