PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Mainstream Kenyans feel cheated, toying with the idea of secession, Odinga says

Kenya’s main opposition leader Raila Odinga has revealed in an interview that mainstream Kenyans feel deeply cheated over the outcome of the last presidential election and are about now toying with the idea of secession.

Odinga who boycotted the Oct. 25 election because he said it would be unfair, leaving President Uhuru Kenyatta to win with 98 percent of the vote, while speaking with Reuters in Nairobi also noted that the biggest problem in Kenya right now is exclusion.

Read also: Kenyatta wins 98.2% of votes in an election marred by violence, boycott

“Mainstream Kenyans feel so deeply cheated they are openly toying with the idea of secession,” Odinga told an audience in Washington, D.C.

“The biggest problem in Kenya right now is exclusion … unless they (the problems) are addressed they will tear the country apart,” he said. ​“As things stand now, anger and radicalization is growing by the day,” Odinga added.

Divisions have continued to run deep in the east African country after Odinga rejected the outcome of the elections which he described as a sham saying it should not have been held.

Kenyatta’s declaration as the winner of the last presidential poll rerun after garnering 98% in a one-way election, is also now being contested in court.

A former lawmaker filed a petition at Kenya’s Supreme Court on Monday challenging Kenyatta’s victory in last month’s presidential election in a move that opens the door to legal scrutiny of the polls.

 

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