See the chaotic scenes as Kenya elects new president
Kenya’s new president says he will go about his work differently than most political leaders. Here’s what’s up and down.
By The Associated Press
Updated: 1:30 p.m. | Kenya’s new president has pledged to run Kenya differently, creating a new government, breaking the country’s old way of doing things and challenging the country’s establishment.
Kenya’s leader said a Cabinet will be formed within two weeks based on which country he chooses to govern over the past three months. He has called on politicians and opposition parties to pull out of what he called “a failed democratic experiment.”
“The only way to revive our nation is by a peaceful, disciplined process,” opposition leader Raila Odinga said in a news conference late Saturday.
Kenya’s transitional period will not be a simple transition; it will require the country to go through “a serious and sincere process of restructuring,” said a statement Saturday by the transitional National Supervisory Commission whose members will begin meeting Monday to prepare the country for a smooth handover to a new government.
The commission will also begin forming a new Cabinet and a national security council, which will include the military, the police and civil society.
The commission is a successor to the old National Assembly, when the opposition had much influence over policy and appointments to government ministries.
The United States and other Western countries have urged Kenya to hold democratic elections in 2015 as they move to normalize relations with the country next year when an election is expected.
Odinga’s National Supervisory Commission says at least half a million Kenyans had registered as presidential electors in the presidential constituency where he has chosen to stand. It will not reveal how many votes will be needed to win the presidency, but says about 300,000 could be enough to elect a leader to office.
Odinga has promised to use the new government to remove the country’s first president, Mwai Kibaki, who was indicted in 2009 on charges of racketeering, fraud, embezzlement and violating Kenya’s constitution by forming a paramilitary force.
Odinga won the election in August
