Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the victor of heated election

Kenyan police opened fire Wednesday to disperse rioters in several areas after presidential challenger Raila Odinga alleged election fraud, saying hackers used the identity of a murdered official to infiltrate the database of the election commission and manipulate results in favor of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Leaders of the opposition National Super Alliance rejected the results before they were announced, saying they had obtained figures from the commission’s computer server showing that Odinga won just over 50 percent of the vote.

Supporters of Odinga have said an unofficial tally shows he won.

“We are all citizens of one republic”.

The dispute over the accuracy of the vote counting process led to sporadic incidents of violence that have left at least five people dead. As Eyder noted, this election marks something of a culmination for Kenyatta and Odinga, whose rivalry dates back to the 1960s, when their fathers – who once served as president and vice president themselves – had a bitter falling out.

“We have seen disputed elections in places like the USA, but so long as the process is, by and large, they have been carried out in a transparent and credible way, politicians should accept the result in a statesmanlike manner”. “I don’t know what we have done wrong since we are only expressing our anger against the electoral officials”, Kennedy Omondi, a resident in Kisumu, said.

In response to Odinga’s claims, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said it appears the opposition’s issues stem from results transmission rather than with the whole election.

President Kenyatta, 55, is a wealthy businessman and the son of Kenya’s first president.

“There are so many questions unanswered, it’s very easy to come to a conclusion that there is mischief going on”, said Dismas Mokua, an analyst at Nairobi-based risk advisory firm Trintari.

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is heading the Carter Centre, said if measures put in place by the electoral commission are followed to the end Kenyans “can have confidence in the outcome of this election”. “No Kenyan should die because of an election”, he said.

The various observer missions monitoring the elections in Kenya on Tuesday called for peace in that country following heightened tensions following the hacking claims.

Kenya’s election commission is urging the country to be patient and says it should have an update on the presidential election in mid-afternoon (1130 GMT).

Raila Odinga has missed the mark again in what was his fourth and most likely last endeavor to wind up noticeably the leader of Kenya. Kenyatta is an ethnic Kikuyu – largest of the country’s more than 40 ethnic groups. In 2007, he called for street protests while in 2013 he took his complaints to court, quelling potential violence.

“Now is the time for leaders, across the political spectrum, to demonstrate their commitment to (the) constitution and to the institutions it creates and the values it sets out”.

Global observers, for their part, have lent their blessing to the electoral process in Kenya, saying that despite “minor variances” the election was conducted freely and fairly.

“The observers largely served the interests of the government”, Orengo said. Some of those races have also been disputed, leading to violence in Garissa and Tana River counties.