Kenya faces praise, uncertainty after election overturned

“How it will conduct the next elections in the next 60 days in unimaginable,” said the Nation.

“Already the NASA (opposition) leadership has declared war on the commission and with or without that, its credibility has been severely dented and the public has lost confidence in it.”

The Standard said the IEBC must “clean up house”.

“What Kenya needs most now is an election conducted in a legal, fair and transparent manner.”

– Kenyatta slams judges –

The opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) cried foul after the August 8 poll over alleged hacking of the electronic system transmitting results from over 40,000 polling stations to the national tallying centre.

NASA argued that tallying forms meant to back up the electronic result were riddled with irregularities, were unsigned, not stamped, illegible or lacking serial numbers or watermarks.

While Maraga cited “irregularities and illegalities” in the transmission of results, his full ruling has not yet been published.

Kenyatta initially said he “respects” the court decision even though he disagreed with it, however later, in off-the-cuff remarks to his supporters, he slammed the court judges as “crooks” who had been paid off by foreigners.

This after weeks of encouraging the opposition to turn to the judiciary over any complaints and accept the outcome.

Observers have warned that the new election could bring even more tension to a country where politics is largely divided along tribal lines.

“Kenya just had a difficult and controversial election, and this decision pushes it right back into another electoral campaign,” said analyst Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham.

“The outcome of the next election may be controversial again”.

The Nation newspaper warned that there was still a long road ahead: “This is not the end. The toughest journey, campaigns and elections, is yet to begin.”