After results began streaming in this week, Kenyan opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga, who has repeatedly warned of the likelihood for election hacking, hasurged his supporters not to accept the election results, claiming that the polls were hacked to support the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which tabulates the voting in Kenya's presidential election, has not yet declared official results, but initial IEBC reports have shown President Uhuru Kenyatta to have the lead with an alleged 54 percent of the vote with 94 percent of the votes accounted for. Odinga has called these numbers “fictitious”. However, his allegations have not been confirmed by local election officials and the IEBC is set to investigate the claims made by Odinga. Such accusations have brought on renewed fears of post-election violence similar to that of 2007, when protests in the street over an alleged “stolen election” turned deadly between the two largest ethnic groups in Kenya — the Kikuyu and Luo peoples. The following ethnic violence resulted in as many as 1,400 deaths in 2007 and 2008. The previous crisis finally came to an end on 28 February 2008, when both sides of the conflict signed a deal brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. During the 2007 crisis, Uhuru Kenyatta was accused of ordering an armed gang called the Mungiki to target Luo communities, and his case was referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). His charges was later withdrawndue to insufficient evidence. While Odinga has urged for peace and calm, he has also emphasized “I don’t control the people”. Violence has since spread out across the country. In Kisumu, a stronghold for Odinga and his supporters, authorities have reportedly used tear gas on protestors demonstrating in the streets and in Nairobi, police killed two "looters" on Wednesday, claiming that they are taking advantage of the protesting to steal. According to a regional police commander, security forces also killed at least one protester on Wednesday during clashes in Kisii County, around 300 kilometers west of Nairobi. In the southeastern Tana River region, police said five men with knives attacked a vote tallying station and killed one person inside. The police later killed two of the suspects and have continued to search for the other suspects involved.
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