TheCable

The Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says early estimates of voters turnout in the country’s presidential rerun election is below 35 percent.

President Uhuru Kenyatta emerged victorious in the first election in August but it was annulled due to “irregularities”.

Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, had withdrawn from the election and called on his followers to boycott it.

Voting on Thursday was marred by skirmishes between police and protesting supporters, who prevented polling stations from opening in four pro-Odinga counties, forcing election officials to postpone the exercise by 48 hours.

IEBC said more than one in 10 polling stations failed to open, while results started coming in on Friday morning.

Wafula Chebukati, IEBC chairman, tweeted on Thursday night that 6.55 million ballots had been cast – just 34.5 percent of registered voters.

By contrast, turnout in the August election was 80 percent.

The outcome is being closely watched across East Africa, which relies on Kenya as a trade and logistics hub, and in the West, which considers Nairobi a bulwark against Islamist militancy in Somalia and conflict in South Sudan and Burundi.

In the western city of Kisumu, police used tear gas and fired live rounds over the heads of stone-throwing youths.

A nurse said gunfire killed one protester and wounded three.

In Homa Bay county next door, police said they shot dead one protester and injured another.

Similar incidents were also reported in Kibera and Mathare, two volatile Nairobi slums.

At least one person was shot in the leg, a Red Cross official said, adding that a church was set ablaze.