- The commission, which is at the centre of a storm
stirred by the opposition over allegations that the computer of the
agency was hacked, admitted there was indeed an attempt to hack its
computer. But the attempt failed.
Meanwhile, international observers on Thursday
praised the handling of the presidential election, with the European
Union mission saying it had seen no sign of manipulation despite
opposition complaints and scattered protests.
Police fired live rounds and tear gas as they
clashed with opposition supporters in one Nairobi neighborhood but most
of the capital and the rest of the country were calm after four people
were killed in violence on Wednesday.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has taken a commanding
lead but his rival, veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, has rejected
provisional electronic results, saying figures released so far are
“fictitious” and that election systems had been hacked.
As they wait for final results to be tallied and
confirmed, many Kenyans are nervous of a repeat of the clashes that
killed about 1,200 people after a bitterly contested 2007 election.
In its first assessment of Tuesday’s poll, the
European Union’s election observer mission said it had seen no signs of
“centralized or localized manipulation” of the voting process.
Marietje Schaake, head of the mission, said the EU would provide an analysis of the tallying process in a later report.
Provisional results released by the election
commission showed Kenyatta had won 54.3 percent of votes, ahead of
Odinga on 44.8 percent – a lead of 1.4 million votes with 97 percent of
polling stations reported.
John Kerry, the former U.S. Secretary of State
heading the Carter Centre observer mission, said the election system,
which is ultimately based on the original paper ballots cast, remained
solid and all sides should wait for electronic tallies to be
double-checked against hard copies.
“The process that was put in place is proving its
value thus far,” Kerry said. “Kenya has made a remarkable statement to
Africa and the world about its democracy and the character of that
democracy. Don’t let anybody besmirch that.”
.Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president in charge of the African Union observer mission, praised the poll so far.
“It would be very regrettable if anything emerges
afterwards that sought to corrupt the outcome, to spoil that outcome,”
he said.
Reuters TV footage showed police firing live rounds
as they clashed with youths throwing stones in Kawangware slum. One
injured or dead person was rushed from the scene in a sack.
Angry protests had erupted on Wednesday in
opposition strongholds in Nairobi and the western city of Kisumu, with
demonstrators burning tyres in the streets.
Police shot dead one protester in Nairobi. One
person was killed by a machete-wielding gang that attacked a tally
center in coastal Tana River county, and police shot dead two of the
assailants.
On Thursday morning, some market stalls and shops were open in Kisumu and more vehicles were on the street than a day earlier. A group of workers sitting in the shade said they were eager for daily life to return.
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