Kenya’s poll body appealed for calm on Tuesday ahead of by-elections seen as a litmus test for a fragile unity government set up after deadly violence following a contested presidential vote in December.
As Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement and President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) continued wrangling, the Election Commission of Kenya urged both sides to respect the law.
“They should preach peace, tolerance and reconciliation and exercise maximum restraint and tolerate each other’s political choices,” it said in a statement published in local newspapers.
“They should avoid engaging in violence, bad language and other malpractices like vote-buying,” it added.
Voters will on Wednesday elect candidates for the seats of two lawmakers who were shot dead earlier this year.
Two other ballots will be held in constituencies where the chaos that followed the December 27 general polls prevented the results from being announced, raising fears that fresh disputes could erupt there next week.
They will also elect 51 civic representatives.
Observers have deplored that despite the more than 1 500 deaths and hundreds of thousands of displacements that marred the December polls and their aftermath, politicians have used ethnic rhetoric during the run-up to the by-election.
Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan brokered a power-sharing deal on February 28 in which Odinga became prime minister. This curbed the violence, paving the way for a coalition government whose marriage has been acrimonious.
On Monday, the prime minister’s party accused some ministers from President Kibaki’s PNU of bribing voters, intimidating rivals and misusing state resources.
The main potential flashpoint on Wednesday is expected to be the Kilgoris constituency, where issues of land that have yet to be addressed by the unity Cabinet have sparked recurring clashes between rival tribes. – AFP