Kenyatta moves to block opposition candidate

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday received the Election Laws (Amendments) Bill 2017 from Parliament and has 14 days to sign it into law, notes a report in The Nation. ‘Parliament has now done its duty and passed the legislation. I can confirm that I have received it. It is my duty to consider it, and then sign it,’ he said. A report on the allAfrica site notes that the ruling Jubilee Party has adopted various strategies to legitimise Kenyatta's victory in the 26 October election rerun after his main challenger, Raila Odinga, withdrew from the poll. The report says these include ensuring Odinga's name remains on the ballot paper, attracting opposition supports and rallying the international community. Meanwhile, the opposition continues to stage protest marches. The UK Minister for Africa, Rory Stewart, has issued a statement noting Kenya's unique circumstances ‘where an election was nullified as a result of process challenges without reference to result, make it necessary for amendments to be undertaken as a matter of priority’. He said this was because it became evident during the election petition that ‘there was lack of clarity in the law relating to the verification of results which was a critical factor in nullifying the election’.

Full report in The Nation

Full report on the allAfrica site

After examining the myriad laws, regulations and court decisions that govern the election process, the net effect of Odinga’s decision to withdraw may be effectively extending the election timetable – buying both his coalition and the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) more time. That’s the view of Nairobi-based analyst Nanjala Nyabola, writing for the Mail & Guardian. She notes that in order to understand how this works, we need to read the various pieces of Kenya’s election laws scattered across five documents – the 2010 Constitution, the 2013 Supreme Court decision on the presidential election, The Elections Act, Kenya’s regulations on elections, and the majority decision in the 2017 election petition. ‘Kenya is highly unusual in that some very detailed provisions of the election law are contained in the Constitution, meaning if there is a clash between the Constitution and any other subsidiary law – for example, the elections regulations – the Constitution prevails.’ Nyabola emphasises that Kenya is deep into uncharted territory and is ‘testing every nook and cranny of the country’s election law’. ‘For the long game of democratic consolidation, this is good, as long as the various actors act within the confines of the law. But this situation also points to an overarching problem with that law: Kenya’s election law is simply too complicated. It is unwieldy – unnecessarily so – primarily to accommodate the many paranoias of the country’s leading political figures.'

Full analysis on the Mail & Guardian site

In another development, the government last week banned protests in the centres of three major cities, citing lawlessness following opposition demonstrations against the country's electoral commission. 'Due to the clear, present and imminent danger of breach of peace, the government notifies the public that, for the time being, we will not allow demonstrations within the central business districts of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu,' said Security Minister Fred Matiangi. A report on the News24 site notes that Matiangi said opposition protests had seen 'attacks on police occasioning grievous bodily harm, serious disruption of normal business, assault on innocent civilians, destruction and looting of property'.

Full Fin24 report