Kenya Elections 2017: Deadly Violence Erupts after Opposition Leader Raila Odinga Alleges Fraud
Violent protests erupted in Kenya after opposition leader Raila Odinga alleged fraud in the election. With results from almost all of the polling stations counted, President Uhuru Kenyatta was shown with a wide lead. … Soon after Odinga spoke on television, angry protesters in slums of Nairobi and the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in the southwest burned tyres, set up roadblocks and clashed with police. Dozens of residents gathered along a main road in Mathare and clashed with police who chased them back into the densely populated settlement that was a flashpoint in the 2007 election violence where around 1,200 people died. Police said at least three people were killed as some slums in the capital, Nairobi, and other opposition strongholds erupted. Witnesses report that a man in Mathare slum was shot in the head by police. IBTimes
Raila Odinga Says IEBC Systems Were Hacked
Kenya’s opposition Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga has rejected the elections results, claiming the electoral commission’s IT system has been hacked. Mr Odinga said the hackers used the identity of the late Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ICT manager Chris Msando to log into the system and manipulate the polls results in favour of the ruling Jubilee Party. “We are telling our people not to accept results, stay calm as we get deep into this,” Mr Odinga told a press conference on Wednesday. … He said hackers introduced algorithms that would interfere with the streaming of results to the IEBC database. “This attack on our democracy affected election results in all 47 counties,” Mr Odinga said. “Uhuru must go home, IEBC must be fully accountable,” he added. The East African
IEBC: There Was Attempt to Hack System, It Failed
Kenya’s electoral commission IEBC Wednesday night confirmed that there were attempts to hack into their result transmission system but the attempt did not go through. IEBC Commissioner Yakub Guliye, who chairs the commission’s ICT committee, told the press that the system is intact and nobody had gained access despite the attempts. “We have seen attempts by some people to hack into our system but they did not succeed because we have invested heavily in surveillance system,” Prof Guliye said. … Mr Chiloba had categorically stated that the system was safe and secure, and that there had been no attempt to hack into it. … Mr Odinga claimed that the system had been hacked and the results compromised to give ruling Jubilee Party’s Uhuru Kenyatta unfair advantage. IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, however, said the results displayed on the screens were not official and would be validated by forms 34A and 34B. The East African
NASA, Jubilee Inspect Forms 34A, 34B after IEBC Resorts to Manual Check
Jubilee and NASA presidential teams are scrutinising forms 34A and 34B at Bomas to ascertain the integrity of the election process. NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga dismissed the provisional tally and made claims such as the use of the late ICT manager Chris Msando’s login details. But Jubilee Party boss Raphael Tuju asked the Opposition not to cause “unnecessary drama”. He also praised the ruling coalition for good performance in new areas. Sources who spoke to The Star at Bomas, which is the national tallying centre, claimed most of the forms reviewed so far have the same handwriting. The Star
At Least 30 Civilians Killed in CAR Clashes
Clashes between an armed group and a self-defence group in southeastern Central African Republic have left at least 30 civilians dead including six Red Cross volunteers who were attending a crisis meeting at a health facility, officials said on Wednesday. The violence took place late last week in the town of Gambo, which is about 75 kilometres from Bangassou, a town that has been a flashpoint amid the upsurge of bloodshed in the long chaotic country. … The deaths marked the third such attack on the Red Cross this year, officials said. Many humanitarian workers have been blocked from doing their work, and fighters also have tried to kill wounded enemies in public health facilities. Al Jazeera
Up to 50 Migrants ‘Deliberately Drowned’ off Yemen, UN Says
Up to 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were “deliberately drowned” when a smuggler forced them into the sea off Yemen’s coast, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday, calling the drownings “shocking and inhumane.” International Organization for Migration staffers found the shallow graves of 29 of the migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol, the agency’s statement said. The dead were buried by those who survived. At least 22 migrants remained missing, the IOM said. The passengers’ average age was around 16, the agency said.The narrow waters between the Horn of Africa and Yemen have been a popular migration route despite Yemen’s ongoing conflict. Migrants try to make their way to the oil-rich Gulf countries. AP
At Least 19 Killed in Clashed between Somali Militants
At least 19 militants have been killed in daylong fighting in the western Somali region of Bakool. The clashes Wednesday took place between al-Shabab militants and fighters loyal to former al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Robow. Officials said an al-Shabab onslaught early in the morning forced Robow’s loyalists to retreat from Abal village. But they later returned to beat back their attackers in a midday counter offensive. … Officials said 13 al-Shabab fighters and six Robow loyalists were killed in the clashes. “A lot of people are dead,” Fiqi told VOA Somali. Security sources told VOA Somali that al-Shabab spent months trying oust Robow. The former leader defected from the terrorist group in 2013. Since then the Islamist militia has been giving Robow ultimatums to leave the area and surrender. Robow has also reportedly rejected offers from regional officials to leave the area and surrender to the Somali government. Radio Shabelle
Cholera Threatens to Sweep Across South Sudan During Rainy Season
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is calling for rapid action to prevent a cholera epidemic in South Sudan from spiraling out of control as the rainy season in the country progresses. More than 18,000 cases of cholera, including 328 deaths have been reported in South Sudan since June 2016. The International Organization for Migration warns the number of cases and deaths is likely to grow as the rainy season this year will leave as much as 60 percent of the country inaccessible by road. IOM spokeswoman, Olivia Headon, tells VOA a combination of factors including the ongoing crisis, the rainy season and the movement of displaced people across the country is making it extremely difficult to contain this deadly disease. VOA
38 Killed in Tribal Clashes in South Sudan, UN Orders Probe
At least 38 people were killed when the Apuk and Aguok clans clashed in the north-west of the country, an official has disclosed. The deputy governor of South Sudan’s Gogrial state, Agoth Mel said over 30 people were injured during clashes between the two clans. South Sudan was plunged into a military conflict when a split between Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar escalated in December 2013. Since then, tens of thousands have been killed and about 3.8 million displaced, according to the United Nations. The United Nations said on Monday it was investigating reports that 25 people were been killed in South Sudan‘s central Gok state in clashes between two tribal factions. Sudan Tribune
UN for First Time Links Conflict to Famine in Four Countries
The U.N. Security Council for the first time is linking conflict to the threat of famine facing more than 20 million people in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria. The council said in a presidential statement Wednesday that it “deplores” that some unnamed parties have blocked vital food and humanitarian aid getting to people in the four countries. Council members stressed that conflicts and violence “have devastating humanitarian consequences … and are therefore a major cause of famine” in the four countries. The Security Council commended donors for providing humanitarian assistance in response to the four crises but said additional resources and funding are needed “to pull people back from the brink of famine.” According to the U.N., only $2.5 billion of the $4.9 billion needed has been received. VOA
DR Congo Protest to Oust Kabila
The opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo is on strike. President Kabila’s opponents hope to force him to announce a date for elections. But the government won’t budge and it still has some aces up its sleeve. Kinshasa is holding its breath. On the second of a two-day general strike launched on Tuesday, life has slowed down in the usually very quirky capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The strike was organized by the Lucha Movement, a group of young people able to mobilize large segments of the civil society. Almost all commerce in the center of the capital was shut down. Security forces increased their presence in the streets of Kinshasa. While access to social media platforms has been restricted, Twitter users are posting pictures showing empty streets at rush hour. Deutsche Welle
Burundi: MPs Call on Government to Punish Politicians Using Inflammatory Language
The Minister of Interior was invited to the National Assembly in the session of oral questions on Tuesday 8 August. Some MPs have said they are concerned about the inflammatory language used by some the political leaders. Bernard Ndayisenga, an MP asked the Minister of the Interior if those politicians who use inflammatory words are not breaking the law. He was referring to the speech delivered by Jeanne Ndimubandi, Secretary General of the National Liberation Front party -FNL. In her address to FNL party members in Rumonge southern Province on 22 July, Jeanne Ndimubandi publicly accused the coalition “Amizero y’Abarundi” of seeking to take power by force. She also said democracy has been established in Burundi since the country is ruled by a president from a Hutu ethnic group. “This kind of speech would divide Burundians”, MP Ndayisenga says. Iwacu
Senegal’s Main Opposition to Boycott Future Elections after “Masquerade”
The leader of Senegal’s main opposition group said on Wednesday it would not participate in any future elections because the parliamentary polls that delivered a large majority to the ruling coalition were a “masquerade”. President Macky Sall’s coalition took 125 seats in the 165-seat National Assembly after winning nearly half the vote, according to the results announced last on Friday. The coalition of 91-year-old former president Abdoulaye Wade, whom Sall defeated in a 2012 presidential election, won 19 seats. Another led by Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall, who has been detained in a corruption probe for the past six months that his supporters say is politically motivated, won seven seats. Reuters
How a London PR Firm Was Forced to Apologize for Sowing Racial Division in South Africa
This year, an army of Twitter bots emerged in South Africa, firing off a barrage of tweets that carried the same basic message: White capitalists had replaced one form of apartheid with another and were conspiring to hold black people down through economic, rather than legal, means. The basic premise — that black South Africans remain overwhelmingly disadvantaged economically — was undeniable. But the bot campaign went considerably further. Hundreds of Twitter accounts — all retweeting the same messages in the same order at the same moment — carried out a sexual smear campaign against editors, journalists and business executives, many of them critics of the powerful Gupta family, which is closely aligned with President Jacob Zuma. … On Thursday, one day after a British PR industry group announced that it was looking into the allegations, Bell Pottinger acknowledged that some of the allegations against it were true. LA Times