PHOTO | FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP
By KEVIN J KELLEY IN NEW YORK kevinjaykelley@gmail.com
Posted Wednesday, April 24 2013 at 23:30
Posted Wednesday, April 24 2013 at 23:30
The Supreme Court ruling, which upheld Uhuru Kenyatta’s election as president, is damaging to its credibility, a Kenyan activist and US scholar declared at a forum held in Washington.
Human rights activists Maina Kiai and expert on African affairs Joel Barkan both suggested that the court should have ordered a runoff between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Raila Odinga.
The two agreed that while Mr Kenyatta clearly won a larger share of the vote than Mr Odinga did on March 4, there was reason to suspect that Mr Kenyatta’s actual tally did not exceed 50 per cent.
Political decision
“The court made a political decision in its ruling that a runoff was not required,” Prof Barkan said.
Calling its unanimous opinion “very shallow” during the forum on Tuesday, Prof Barkan said “the court itself was the big loser” and had “essentially undermined its own authority, going forward.”
Mr Kiai termed the election ruling as “one of the most shallow judgements I have ever seen.”
“As civil society, we’re not challenging the results, but the process,” he said.
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