President Uhuru Kenyatta during a past event. The Supreme Court nullified his victory in the August 8 polls. [Photo/Nation]
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said he expected elections to be held within the 60-day period set out in the Constitution after the Supreme Court annulled the August 8 polls, and that the electoral agency IEBC would conduct it.
The president on Tuesday said no one had the right to impose conditions on the IEBC before the repeat elections were held, and that threats by the opposition coalition NASA amounted to bullying, intimidation, and rogue politics, but would amount to nothing.
President Kenyatta spoke when he received a 8,000-strong member delegation from Narok County, at which former gubernatorial candidate Patrick ole Ntutu and 10 MCAs pledged full support for his re-election campaign.
“The election must be done within 60 days (of the Supreme Court decision) and two, the election must be conducted by IEBC as required by the Constitution,” President Kenyatta said.
President Kenyatta was accompanied by Deputy President William Ruto and Narok Governor Samuel ole Tunai.
The President said “noises” by the opposition that they would boycott or block the election amounted to empty banter.
“We are telling our opponents to stop intimidating Kenyans. Nobody can block the election. And we will not give in to any kind of intimidation from anybody,” President Kenyatta said.
He told the opposition to seek votes from the electorate countrywide instead of focusing on issuing threats. He argued that threats and press conferences in Nairobi had yielded no votes for the opposition in the August 8 elections.
The President also poured cold water on opposition claims that there would be a vacuum or constitutional crisis if NASA skipped the repeat polls. If no election was held, the President said he would divert the savings to development, such as the flagship energy programme “last mile”.