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Kenya tensions spike as oppn cries foul over election result

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Nairobi: Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta appeared headed for re-election on Wednesday but his rival Raila Odinga claimed a massive hacking attack had manipulated results, ratcheting up tensions in opposition strongholds.


Police fired tear gas to disperse a few hundred protesters in Kisumu in western Kenya as well as in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, with Odinga’s supporters setting up burning barricades and blocking roads with debris in both spots, AFP reporters said.


With votes from 95 per cent of polling stations counted, electoral commission (IEBC) results showed Kenyatta leading with 54 per cent of the over 14 million ballots tallied against Odinga’s 44.7 per cent.


“These results are fake, it is a sham. They cannot be credible,” Odinga told a press conference in the early hours of Wednesday as partial results streamed onto a public website via an electronic tallying system aimed at preventing fraud.


The IEBC said the results could not be considered official until they were verified by original documents from polling stations.


Odinga’s accusations, and the reaction of his supporters, again raised the spectre of electoral violence in Kenya, still traumatised by the memory of bloody post-poll clashes a decade ago which left 1,100 people dead and 600,000 displaced.


Odinga detailed accusations of a massive hacking attack on the electronic system, saying hackers had gained entry to the system using the identity of top IT official Chris Msando, who was found murdered and tortured late last month. — AFP


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