Kenya election commissioner flees country ahead of presidential poll rerun

Roselyn Akombe, an election board commissioner, has resigned and fled Kenya a week before a rerun of the presidential election.

In September, the country’s supreme court annulled presidential elections held in August because the polls were “neither transparent nor verifiable”.

Uhuru Kenyatta victory was annulled following a petition by opposition leader Raila Odinga.

The court then ordered a re-rerun election for October. Under Kenyan law repeat election is to be held within 60 days of nullification of the original vote.

Odinga withdrew from the repeat poll last week, saying the election board had not carried out reforms demanded by the opposition.

Thereafter, Kenyatta accused Odinga of pulling out of the race after sensing defeat and trying to cause chaos to force a power-sharing deal,

According to NAN, Akombe, a member of the election board’s top panel, cited severe partisan political divisions among its eight members and the secretariat for her decision to leave.

She said the re-rerun election would not be credible.

“The commission has become a party to the current crisis. The commission is under siege,” she said in a statement.

“We need the commission to be courageous and speak out that this election as planned cannot meet the basic expectations of a credible election.”