Cardinal John Njue A Kenyan cardinal has called on politicians to restrain their supporters in the lead up to Kenya’s second election after the previous vote tally was annulled.
Cardinal John Njue, the current Archbishop of Nairobi, called for dialogue instead of violence.
As tensions grow between the current Jubilee government and its main opposition the National Super Alliance (NASA), Cardinal Njue urged the politicians to engage in talks and restrain their supporters ahead of the vote.
The cardinal reminded politicians of the deadly violence that ensued in 2008 when protesters rejected the election results and thousands of people were killed, and hundreds of thousands were displaced. He said that hard line stances would further divide the country.
It’s believed current President, Uhuru Kenyatta, will file a judicial review of the Supreme Court decision, and will request to have the ballot boxes re-opened and the votes recounted instead of holding another election.
The Vice-Chairman of the Jubilee Party told the Sunday Standard that the government are “completely ready for a fresh election”.
He added, however, that “we would like the will of the people as expressed in the August 8 election to be validated and there will be no need for a repeat election.”
Mr Kenyatta accepted the ruling of the courts despite calling it a “judicial coup” against the government, opposition leader Raila Odinga replied saying: “The court overturned the coup engineered by the commission that gave Mr Kenyatta a fake win in the presidential race”.
“President Kenyatta must respect the Supreme Court and should hence desist from telling them how they should discharge their mandate.”
After the failure of the August 8 elections new voting is set to take place on October 26. Catholic bishops in Kenya continually called for peace after violent post-election protests this year killed up to 24 people and injured hundreds according to human rights groups.