Kenyan police use teargas to disperse opposition protesters

Kenyan police used teargas on Friday to disperse opposition protesters in the country’s three main cities who were demanding electoral reform, Reuters witnesses said.

On Thursday, the government banned demonstrations in the central business districts of the capital Nairobi, the coastal city of Mombasa and the western city of Kisumu.

NAN reports that several people were injured in protests in Kenya on Wednesday, a day after opposition leader Raila Odinga announced he would quit the presidential race, in a move that plunged the country into uncharted waters.

Election officials have been locked in crisis meetings since the decision, as debate raged over what Odinga’s move could mean for a dramatic election saga that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Aug. 8 victory annulled by the Supreme Court.

Kenyatta insists an Oct. 26 do-over must go ahead.

Longtime rival Odinga says his withdrawal legally forces election officials to begin the entire process from scratch, a move that leaves more time for his reform demands to be met.

However, the nation’s electoral commission said Wednesday it had not received formal notice of his withdrawal and regarded all original candidates as still on the slate.(Reuters/NAN)