Kenyan opposition leader to challenge elections results

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday said he will proceed to the Supreme Court to seek a legal redress on disputed election results that put him behind the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi that he will file a case at the highest court in the land to challenge last Friday's declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of hotly contested presidential elections.
"We have now decided to move to the Supreme Court and lay before the world the making of a computer generated leadership," Odinga remarked in the wake of pressure from foreign observers, religious leaders and captains of industry to seek legal channels in solving election dispute.
Odinga said they decided to go to the Supreme Court for the second time following wide consultations and the current oppression on civil societies despite earlier declining to pursue legal means.
"The court can use this chance to redeem itself, or, like in 2013, it can compound the problems we face as a country," he said.
The Supreme Court dismissed the opposition leader's case on the March 4, 2013 presidential poll that the polls body said Kenyatta won, citing lack of evidence.
Odinga who has unsuccessfully contested three elections before, said he will provide evidence to prove how results were inflated in order to give Kenyatta undeserved victory.
The 72-year-old Odinga was making his fourth stab at the presidency during the August 8 elections.
He garnered 44.7 percent of votes cast compared to Kenyatta who obtained 54.2 percent.
Odinga rejected the presidential election results saying they were manipulated by a hacker who gained access to the electoral agency's servers to favor the incumbent.
The declaration of Kenyatta as the winner of presidential race triggered protests in the perceived opposition strongholds of Nairobi's slums and western Kenyan towns.
Odinga's eagerly awaited announcement of his next course of action on Wednesday minimized post-poll jitters that have engulfed the country since last Friday.
He however did not rule out civil disobedience in his quest for a fair and credible election outcome.

source: Xinhua