{"id":913,"date":"2017-10-11T00:40:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T00:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=913"},"modified":"2017-10-11T00:40:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T00:40:01","slug":"kenyas-raila-odinga-quits-election-re-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2017\/10\/11\/kenyas-raila-odinga-quits-election-re-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya&#8217;s Raila Odinga quits election re-run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-41572128\">http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-41572128<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has pulled out of October&#8217;s election re-run.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Odinga said his withdrawal would give the electoral commission enough time to introduce reforms that will help deliver a more credible election.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court annulled the result of the original 8 August poll, which saw Uhuru Kenyatta declared winner, after finding irregularities.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Kenyatta says he is ready to proceed with the new vote as planned.<\/p>\n<p>The country&#8217;s electoral commission said Mr Kenyatta had won the August vote by a margin of 1.4 million votes &#8211; or 54% of the total, compared to Mr Odinga&#8217;s 44%.<\/p>\n<p>Kenya&#8217;s vice-president, William Ruto, has now called on the commission to declare Mr Kenyatta president as a result of Mr Odinga&#8217;s announcement.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">The election re-run was due to take place on 26 October, but Mr Odinga said on Tuesday: &#8220;We have come to the conclusion that there is no intention on the part of the IEBC [electoral commission] to undertake any changes to its operations and personnel&#8230; All indications are that the election scheduled for 26 October will be worse than the previous one.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a result, he said, &#8220;considering the interests of the people of Kenya, the region and the world at large&#8221; it was best that he withdrew from the race.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Odinga&#8217;s coalition party believes the election will have to be cancelled as a result of his withdrawal, allowing &#8220;adequate time to undertake the reforms necessary to conduct an election that is in strict conformity with the constitution, the relevant laws and the constitution&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Kenyatta, speaking at a rally in the southern town of Voi, said: &#8220;We have no problem going back to elections. We are sure we will get more votes than the last time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;We are also telling him it is the people&#8217;s right to choose their leader. It is their sovereign right to choose their leader of choice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Uncharted territory<\/h2>\n<p><strong>By Dickens Olewe, BBC News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The withdrawal could be a strategy for Raila Odinga to exit the political scene on his own terms.<\/p>\n<p>The annulment of President Uhuru Kenyatta&#8217;s victory in the 8 August election was a much-needed political high for Mr Odinga.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><span class=\"story-image-copyright\">EPA<\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><span class=\"media-caption__text\">Mr Odinga&#8217;s supporters (pictured during a march in September) have been urged to take part in a protest on Wednesday<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He felt vindicated for challenging the election and pushed for changes to the electoral system as a condition for his participation in the re-run.<\/p>\n<p>The electoral commission has rejected the changes he demanded, largely because of contractual agreements with the companies providing key services for the election.<\/p>\n<p>With President Kenyatta&#8217;s party having won a majority of MPs in both houses of parliament, it is likely that Mr Odinga was headed for another defeat and that would be too much for a man, who has been nicknamed the enigma.<\/p>\n<p>The legal consequences of Mr Odinga&#8217;s withdrawal are unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Constitutional lawyers disagree on the way forward and whether the 26 October election can still take place and if, despite his withdrawal, Mr Odinga will still be on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Although many Kenyans are jaded by the never-ending political drama, they will now have to belt-up for a drive further into unchartered territory.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\" \/>\n<p>Mr Odinga&#8217;s opposition coalition &#8211; the National Super Alliance (NASA) &#8211; has previously made clear its participation in the election was contingent on reforms being made.<\/p>\n<p>But Kenya&#8217;s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says it has made the necessary changes.<\/p>\n<p>Prominent opposition senator James Orengo has called on people to protest on Wednesday, using the slogan &#8220;no reform, no elections&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-41572128 Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has pulled out of October&#8217;s election re-run. Mr Odinga said his withdrawal would give the electoral commission enough time to introduce reforms that will help deliver a more credible election. The Supreme Court annulled the result of the original 8 August poll, which saw Uhuru Kenyatta declared winner, after finding irregularities. But Mr Kenyatta&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2017\/10\/11\/kenyas-raila-odinga-quits-election-re-run\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}