Kenyan Polls have closed in a rerun of the presidential election which was boycotted by the main opposition leader and marred by clashes between his supporters and security forces.
According to the country’s electoral board, voting was postponed in at least four countries due to “security challenges”.
“We have faced and continue to face challenges which are largely security related in certain electoral areas,” Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, said.
The four counties were Homa Bay, Kisumu, Migori and Siasa, according to Chebukati.
“The commission has postponed elections in those areas to Saturday the 28th of October this week. So there will be repeat elections in those areas in accordance with the law,” Chebukati added.
At least two people were killed in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu and several others wounded as police engaged in running street battles with protesters. One person was also killed in Homa Bay.
Criticisms for the spate of election violence in Kenya have increased with critics raising questions about the strength of democracy in the African country and this has led us to deliberate on the issues of electoral violence in countries in Africa.
Susanne Mueller, a Boston University African Studies Center researcher, who has studied Kenya’s politics, holds that electoral violence in Kenya is mostly instigated as a result of the fear of being marginalized when the opposition wins.
According to Mueller, “Kenyan political parties operate around personalities, rather than ideologies. The “big man” — the candidate — is a vehicle for his own party or ethnic group, according to Mueller. The country also has what’s called “zero-sum ethnic politics,” which means supporters of losing parties don’t see opponent victories as a win for the other side — they see it as a loss for themselves and their ethnic group.
“If you as a Kikuyu win, I feel that I as a Luo lose,” Mueller explained
Electoral violence has been recorded in other African Countries including Nigeria and the United Nations has been actively involved in the ensuring that electoral process around the world, starting from the 1940s, shortly after its founding.
