Kenya’s unpopular ruling party was yesterday accused of waging a campaign of murder, intimidation and corruption, ahead of an election today which is expected to result in the country’s first change of government since independence in 1963.
The violence centred on the fiercely-contested capital, Nairobi, where early yesterday police shot dead three opposition activists.
Election observers said two campaigners for Fred Gumo, a high-profile candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), were killed when police opened fire on their campaign truck. A third man died outside Nairobi hospital after Gumo’s opponent from the ruling Kanu party, Amin Walji, reportedly denied him access at gunpoint.
”Walji was waiting at the hospital waving a pistol with his supporters around him,” one election observer said. ”They threatened hospital staff and stopped the injured entering, one of whom died in the street.”
Analysts said the violence was unlikely to affect the outcome of what remains by far Kenya’s most peaceful election.
Several recent polls put NARC’s presidential candidate, Mwai Kibaki, at least 40 points ahead of Kanu’s nominee, Uhuru Kenyatta.
In the run-up to Kenya’s two previous polls, political violence claimed at least 3 000 lives, allowing President Daniel arap Moi victory.
Now Moi is constitutionally barred from standing, and many of his cronies – including Gumo – are backing Kibaki.
Kibaki, who has been virtually house-bound for the past two weeks after being injured in a car crash, told the Guardian: ”Kenyans have already made up their minds. They have chosen Narc as their next government. The campaigning is over.”
In addition to the trouble in Nairobi, Kenya’s minister for justice, Julius Sunkuli, was yesterday accused of flying fraudulent ballots into his southern Transmara constituency, after a split crate spilled ballot papers onto an airstrip in the Masai Mara game reserve.
The crate was taken to a safari lodge hired by Sunkuli’s family-members, election observers said.
In Gachoka constituency in the north of the country, Narc’s candidate, Joseph Nyagah, yesterday accused Kanu of distributing machetes bearing the slogan of its candidate: ”Musakwa must win.” Last week, one of Nyagah’s rallies was broken up by a volley of arrows, and Kanu was fined for ”allowing extreme violence” in the constituency. – Guardian Unlimited Â