The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– ‘Exercise restraint’ –
Seven of the dead were killed in clashes in the west of the country, which was also calm on Sunday.
“These are people killed in the confrontations with officers since Friday night,” said a regional police officer.
Nine people died in the capital, including a young girl whose family said she had been shot in the back while playing on a balcony in Mathare as police opened fire on protesters.
The Doctors without Borders (MSF) charity said on Twitter it had treated 54 wounded people in its clinics.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called on Kenya’s opposition to “exercise restraint” to ensure calm.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini also urged the opposition “to respect the results and to use legal means available for appeals and complaints.”
In another blow to the opposition, local election observer group ELOG, which deployed 8,300 observers and conducted a parallel tallying operation, determined Kenyatta had won with 54 percent — the same figure given by the electoral commission.
Statement by Kofi Annan on Elections in Kenya. #electionske FILE PHOTO https://t.co/hXLSndJq2k pic.twitter.com/Kf4M6nfjyh
— The Independent (@UGIndependent) August 12, 2017
– ‘Zero-sum game’-
Odinga, an ethnic Luo who scored nearly 45 percent of votes to Kenyatta’s 54 percent, has a huge following notably among the poor who are drawn to his platform of more equitable economic growth.
But ethnic grievance is also a key aspect of his appeal.
Three of Kenya’s four presidents have been Kikuyu and the other Kalenjin, leaving Luos feeling excluded from power for over half a century.
Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal divisions. Critics say the faultlines that burst into the open in 2007 have not been adequately dealt with.
“The reason elections have become a trigger for violence is the relationship between power and prosperity. It is a zero-sum game and winning becomes a life and death matter, hence losing is not an option,” the Daily Nation wrote in its editorial.
UPDATE: Pressure mounts on #Odinga to quell deadly #Kenya protests https://t.co/xUmpgL3jfy pic.twitter.com/7qnz6UGPyT
— The Independent (@UGIndependent) August 13, 2017
