See the chaotic scenes as Kenya elects new president
This is exactly what you need to know about the 2017 Kenyan election.
No, the election was not peaceful, nor was it in a free and fair manner. It was, in fact, a chaotic, violent and bloody mess as Kenya’s newly elected president was sworn in, sparking protests across the country.
Below we take a closer look at the election, and what it really means for the country.
The opposition said they were the winners
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said they would form the next government, following the resignation of President Mwai Kibaki, who stepped down amid political and ethnic tensions in December.
In a vote to elect a president, Kenyans chose Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been the DPP’s number-one ally in the past.
The opposition won the presidency in 2013, but were denied de facto control of the government, which led to weeks of protests. In the 2014 election, Mwai Kibaki was re-elected.
“The DPP won the presidency for the first time in the history of this country,” said David Bahati, general secretary of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
He said the decision to change from a first-past-the-post-system to a proportional representation system – where candidates are represented according to their share of votes – meant that the DPP would gain a bigger share of the votes.
“The results in a country that can have a population of over 27 million people is not an accident. The people made their decision in the 2014 election. People understood that if they didn’t want to take power through intimidation we could have a stable government,” said Bahati.
“We did not want to take power by intimidation because we were afraid that we