Voters stand in a long queue just before the close of voting in Nairobi, yesterday.
MOMBASA, Kenya: As millions of Kenyans waited in long lines to vote in the nation’s presidential election yesterday, officials said a secessionist group on the coast launched multiple attacks which killed
19 people.
Yesterday was Kenya’s first presidential election since more than 1,000 people died in postelection attacks five years ago, and officials have been working to prevent a repeat of the
massive violence.
A group of 200 secessionists armed with guns, machetes and bows and arrows set a trap for police in the coastal city of Mombasa in the pre-dawn hours, Inspector General David
Kimaiyo said.
Four police were hacked to death with machetes, coast police boss Aggrey Adoli said.
The secessionist group — the Mombasa Republican Council — had threatened election day attacks, and Kimaiyo said police were planning a raid “that will see the end of the MRC.”
The MRC believes Kenya’s coast should be an independent country. Their cause, which is not defined by religion, is fuelled by the belief that political leaders in Nairobi have taken the coast’s land for themselves, impoverishing indigenous residents.
In addition to the attack in Mombasa, police blamed the MRC for three deadly attacks in nearby Kilifi. An Associated Press reporter visited a morgue and saw four dead young men wearing red bandanas — a sign of the MRC — who had been shot to death, most likely by police.
An AP tally of the violence found that four police and three MRC members died in Mombasa, while seven MRC members, six government officials and two civilians died in the three attacks near the coastal city of Kilifi, all according to police and mortuary officials.
The violence in the Mombasa area is separate from the ethnic violence that could break out related to election results, and which was so deadly after the 2007 vote.
The country’s top two presidential candidates condemned the Mombasa attacks. Prime Minister Raila Odinga called it a “heinous act of aggression” during a historic exercise. Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said he was discouraged by the news but he was sure the security situation would be brought under control.
Authorities flew in an additional 400 police officers to Mombasa to increase security. The United Nations restricted the movement of its staff on the coast because of the violence.
“People with ill intent must be stopped by all means,” Kimaiyo said, explaining that he directed police to use their guns to stop further loss of life, a sensitive directive given that police killed more than 400 people during the 2007-08 post-election violence.
Police said the MRC were trying to suppress voter turnout, but the long lines seen across the country also formed in Mombasa.
Those lines left voters frustrated in the election’s early hours. Anti-fraud computers that scan thumbprints to identify registered voters were used for the first time and appeared to be greatly slowing the process. Equipment broke down in some polling stations and power blackouts made the technology useless in others. Many voting officials had to resort to going through the old voters’ register.
George Kimoi, 42, waited two hours to vote. He said it was the first time he felt his ballot would actually count, after the government upgraded ballot security measures in the wake of allegations the last vote was rigged.
“I felt that it was important to wait and vote today because we need a new government,” he said.
Odinga voted at an elementary school and acknowledged what he called voting challenges. He said poll workers were taking action to “remedy the anomalies.”
“Never before have Kenyans turned up in such numbers,” he said. “I’m sure they’re going to vote for change this election.”
Kenyatta gave a conciliatory message intended to help Kenyans accept the election outcome without violence: “This nation will have a president and that president will represent all Kenyans.”
Official results are not expected until today or tomorrow. A run-off between the top presidential contenders is likely in April, unless one unexpectedly captures more than 50 percent of ballots from among the pool of eight candidates.
Yesterday’s secessionist violence is different from the tribal, postelection violence experienced five years ago. The ethnic violence could still break out if Odinga or Kenyatta supporters feel their candidate was cheated out
of a win.
In Kilifi, Nichodemus Shanga had hoped to vote at a primary school, but an MRC attack left several bodies lying on the ground, and he said officials didn’t immediately remove them. Voting officials fled.
“I feel very bad because it is my right to vote. We came here at 5am asking them to remove the bodies so that we can vote, but they didn’t do that and it has created a lot of tension and fear,” he said, noting that residents fear a police backlash. The chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Ahmed Issack Hassan, urged voters not to be intimidated by the violence. He also told poll workers they must ensure voters don’t spend hours in line, a common problem. Many polling stations were kept open after the 5pm closing time to accommodate late starts and long lines. AP
