Kenyan court decides on reelection


Kenya election: Kenyatta vows to 'fix' court as win quashed

2 September 2017

The president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, has said his country has "a problem" with its judiciary after the Supreme Court cancelled his victory in last month's presidential election.
Speaking on live television, he vowed to "fix" the court if re-elected.
It comes a day after the Supreme Court cited irregularities in the vote and ordered a new one within 60 days.
Mr Kenyatta has said he will respect the ruling and called for calm amid fears of unrest.
But at a rally in Nairobi on Friday he branded the Supreme Court judges "crooks".
The 8 August poll raised fears of major violence similar to that following a disputed vote in 2007.
Deputy President William Ruto has called on the electoral commission to set a date for fresh presidential elections, saying the governing Jubilee Party is ready.
But opposition candidate Raila Odinga wants the commission replaced, saying it has lost credibility.
It is believed to be the first time in Africa that a court has ruled against the electoral win of an incumbent based on a court challenge by the opposition.
"We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem," Mr Kenyatta said of the judiciary during his television address on Saturday.
"Who even elected you? Were you? We have a problem and we must fix it."
Although the unrest in this year's vote was not as serious as in 2007, days of sporadic protests left at least 28 people dead.
Kenya's election commission had declared Mr Kenyatta the winner by a margin of 1.4 million votes but the result was immediately challenged in court by his nearest rival, Mr Odinga.
In a ruling on Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the 8 August election had not been conducted in accordance with the constitution, declaring it "invalid, null and void".
The ruling did not attribute any blame to President Kenyatta's party or campaign.
Mr Odinga, 72, said the ruling marked "a historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension for the people of the continent of Africa".
Following the election, international monitors from the EU, the African Union and the US had said there was no major fraud and urged Mr Odinga to concede.

Source:
BBC Staff. “Kenya Election: Kenyatta Vows to 'Fix' Court as Win Quashed.” BBC News, BBC, 2 Sept. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41136478.

Response
I found this article really interesting because I live in Kenya and find that this is an important article to read and know about. I think that specifically for this article the audience is the western world because it is written simply and is not very detailed. Its purpose appears to be just informing people of what is going on. If this had been written by a Kenyan news agency I am sure that it would have gone into more details. After researching an article  I found that BBC is considered to be neutral, however some critics have said it has some liberal bias, while others said it has more of a cultural liberal bias. From the way that the article is written I believe that the author might have a slight bias against Odinga and for Uhuru. Though this might also be my interpretation, because I think many people think that Odinga’s only goal is to win the elections and be president. It was the last sentence of the article that really gave me that opinion about the author, because it almost sounds as if he trusts the International people more and is very critical over Odinga. My personal opinion is that Odinga primarily wants justice and is willing to fight for it. Someone else reading this might have the same opinion as the writer, what opinion do you have on this topic? I believe that the main purpose of this article was to inform the audience, although at times it seemed to make the western world seem more superior to Africa.  

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