Kenya elections: No need to kill for power – Mahama

Ghana’s former President John Dramani Mahama has called on the two leading presidential candidates in Kenya to accept the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

Electoral officials say that with 91% of results in, incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta is leading with about 54.5%, to Mr Odinga’s 44.6%.

These results mean Mr. Kenyatta appears to be heading for a first-round victory. In order to avoid a run-off, a candidate needs 50% plus one of the votes cast and at least a 25% share of the vote in 24 of Kenya’s 47 counties.

But the results have been rejected by the opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga who claims the electoral commission’s IT system has been hacked to manipulate the election results.

However, speaking to the BBC Tuesday, former President Mahama stated that the two candidates must ensure that no blood is shed to win political power. “Politics is not a matter of life and death. You want to serve the people and so no blood must be shed because you want to serve people…I have said before that the enemy of Kenyans is killing poverty and creating wealth and prosperity.

“It is not one’s ethnic affiliation, or religious affiliation, or political affiliation. The outcome of this election is that one person will win, another will lose.

The winner must be magnanimous in victory, the loser must be gracious in defeat. Once we are able to get that together, I am sure we will be fine. The international community is watching all Kenyans. The whole world is watching BBC and CNN so the whole world’s attention is focused on Kenya and Kenyans must get it right.”

Many fear a repeat of the violence after a disputed election 10 years ago. More than 1,100 Kenyans died and 600,000 were displaced following the 2007 vote.

Mr Odinga said that the hackers gained access to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) computer system by using the identity of the commission’s IT manager, Chris Msando, who was killed last month.

The opposition leader had earlier told journalists the results coming in were “fake”, because the authorities had failed to present documents verifying the results.