Kenya's Odinga rejects election repeat without 'guarantees'

The Kenyan opposition, led by Raila Odinga, has written to the electoral commission with 25 new demands that should be fulfilled before the fresh presidential poll takes place, including a full audit of the elections technology and change of the company that printed the previous ballot papers.

Odinga reiterated that the trust issues raised by the opposition concerning the electoral commission must be addressed before voting day is set.

No 'different results'

"We know exactly what transpired in these last elections, we know what the IEBC did and we know that if we were to go back there will be no different results, and that's why we will say there will be no elections on the 17th of October," Odinga said. "We are going to propose to them 24th or 31st of October, but that is subject to those conditions being met."

Speaking at State House in Nairobi while meeting leaders from western Kenya, President Kenyatta lashed out at Odinga, saying that there is no legal requirement that the electoral body should have consulted any of the presidential candidates for it to set a new date for the rerun.

Slammed for 'ethnic division'

"We agreed to the court’s ruling and waited patiently for the election date. Now the date has already been announced, Odinga has said no to the set date because [he was] not consulted,", the president said.  "Was I consulted?"

 He criticized that it seemed as if Odinga wanted to "guide the process of the election."

Only two candidates, Kenyatta and Odinga, will appear on the ballot paper this time, locking out minority party candidates.

Ekuru Aukot, another presidential candidate in the August 8 poll, called the move by the commission unfair. "Repeat fresh elections mean all eight candidates," he said - and went to court to challenge a decision which he says "displays total ignorance on the part of Chebukati as the chair of IEBC to fail to interpret the orders of the Supreme Court … one that is just creating confusion as to what the court decided."

Kenyatta was declared the winner after the August 8 election with 54 percent of the vote and nearly 1.4 million votes ahead of Odinga. The Supreme Court nullified his re-election last Friday, citing irregularities.

Andrew Wasike in Nairobi contributed to this report.