World

Kenya’s Supreme Court on Friday wrapped up hearing three days of oral arguments in the case challenging the validity of the August 9 presidential election won by Deputy President William Ruto.

His 77-year-old opponent Raila Odinga, who lost his fifth stab at the presidency, insists the election results were manipulated and claims to have “enough evidence” to prove his case.

With the seven-judge bench set to hand down its decision on Monday — the constitutional deadline — here are some key questions about the case and its potential implications for the country.

– How did we get here? –

The Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) proclaimed 55-year-old Ruto president-elect on August 15 after a nail-biting wait for results. 

Odinga lost by a wafer-thin margin of around 230,000 votes despite the support of his old foe and outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, and the weight of the ruling party machinery behind him.

The former prime minister cried foul over the outcome, which also triggered turmoil within the IEBC.

No presidential poll outcome has gone uncontested in Kenya since 2002, and Odinga himself has been down this road before, petitioning the court in 2013 and 2017. 

In August 2017, the Supreme Court annulled the election after Odinga rejected Kenyatta’s victory.

The IEBC was under intense pressure to produce a transparent vote after facing stinging criticism over its handling of the 2017 election.

– What are the complaints? –

Seven petitioners — whose cases have been collapsed into one — have alleged that there were massive irregularities that compromised the integrity of the vote.

Odinga’s 72-page petition claims that hackers broke into the IEBC servers and “converted, manipulated and unlawfully” dumped forms used to tabulate results from polling stations. 

He alleges that the IEBC released contradictory figures on voter turnout and failed to tally results from at least 27 of the 290 constituencies, arguing that Ruto did not therefore meet the constitutional threshold of 50 percent plus 1 of the valid votes cast. 

The court, led by Chief Justice Martha Koome, said it had identified nine issues to consider before arriving at a verdict.

Judges will attempt to figure out whether the IEBC website was hacked and if there was any interference with the transmission of result forms. 

They will also scrutinise the IEBC’s servers to ascertain if the election technology — a hot-button issue that led to the nullification of the August 2017 vote — met the “standards of integrity, verifiability, security and transparency”.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati has denied the allegations, insisting he carried out his duties according to the law of the land despite facing “intimidation and harassment”.

– What next? –

There are three possible outcomes.

If the court finds substantial irregularities that could have seriously affected the results announced by the IEBC, it can nullify the election and order a new vote within 60 days.

Alternatively, it can criticise the electoral process but conclude that the irregularities do not merit an annulment.

If it nonetheless finds that the president-elect did not secure 50 percent plus 1 of valid votes, it will order a runoff, which must be held within 30 days, marking a first for Kenya.

Finally, it can uphold Ruto’s victory, allowing him to be sworn in on September 13. 

The court’s ruling will be decided by a majority vote. 

The Supreme Court is the highest in the land, created under Kenya’s 2010 constitution “as the final arbiter and interpreter of the constitution”. 

Its rulings are final and binding.

– What’s at stake for Kenya? –

Plenty. 

The aftermath of the poll and court decision is being keenly watched as a test of democratic maturity in the East African powerhouse.

While Kenya is considered a pillar of stability in a volatile region, there are fears a drawn-out dispute may trigger violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.

Kenya’s worst electoral violence occurred after the 2007 vote, when more than 1,100 people died in politically motivated bloodletting between rival tribes.

A prolonged electioneering period will also exacerbate already difficult economic conditions, with business likely to slow down in the midst of political uncertainty. 

The country is struggling with soaring prices, a crippling drought that has left millions hungry, endemic corruption and disenchantment with the political elite.

Queen Elizabeth II will not attend a traditional highlight of her summer trip to Scotland because of persistent health worries, British media said Friday.

The 96-year-old monarch has been dogged by problems walking and standing since last year, forcing her to cancel a series of public engagements.

Fears about a flare-up of what royal officials call “episodic mobility problems” have prevented her returning to London to appoint a new prime minister.

The queen had this weekend been expected to attend the Braemar Gathering near her remote Balmoral retreat in northeast Scotland.

A decision on her withdrawal was made for her comfort, British media reported, without quoting sources.

The event, which is always held on the first Saturday in September, is the most famous on the Highland Games circuit.

Senior royals, including the monarch, have attended the games regularly since the mid-19th century, to watch feats of strength and endurance.

Events include tossing the caber, in which kilted competitors endeavour to lift and throw a full-length log of Scots Pine.

Attendees this year — the first since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic — include the queen’s eldest son and heir, Prince Charles.

The queen, who came to the throne in 1952, traditionally appoints the country’s prime minister at an audience at Buckingham Palace in London.

In a change to convention, she will perform the constitutional role at Balmoral next week, instead of returning to the British capital.

Normally the handover of power is a swift affair, given the palace’s location, just a short distance from parliament and government offices.

But the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) round-trip to the Scottish Highlands will lengthen the process, delaying key appointments to the new government.

Boris Johnson, who resigned as Conservative party leader in July, will formally tender his resignation as prime minister to the queen Tuesday.

She will then ask the new Tory leader — either Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or former finance minister Rishi Sunak — to form a new government.

Truss and Sunak have been vying to succeed Johnson. The winner of the vote of Tory MPs and grassroots part members closes on Friday, with the winner due to be announced on Monday.

The next incumbent at 10 Downing Street will be the queen’s 15th prime minister of her record-breaking 70-year reign.

Her first was World War II leader Winston Churchill, who returned for a second term of office in 1951 until 1955.

Members of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion on Friday glued themselves to the Speaker’s chair in the UK House of Commons, calling for a “Citizens’ Assembly” to help shape environmental policy.

“Just before noon today (1100 GMT), a group of around fifty people took nonviolent action at the House of Commons,” the group said in a statement. 

“The parliament action began with three people booked on an official tour of the building, gluing themselves in a chain around the Speaker’s Chair.” 

The group, wearing t-shirts reading “Let The People Decide”, took it in turns to read a speech calling for a Citizens’ Assembly to “give ordinary people a say over the major crises facing us.” 

Parliament is currently on summer recess, with politicians due to return on Monday.

Outside parliament, another member climbed up scaffolding around the Elizabeth Tower housing “Big Ben” and raised a banner reading “Let The People Decide — Citizens’ Assemblies Now”.

Two others chained themselves to the railings. 

“To create a new, fairer politics will require first thousands, then millions of us,” said Alanna Byrne, of Extinction Rebellion. 

“It will require sustained culture-shifting civil disobedience, until we become impossible to ignore.”

The group has carried out multiple actions over recent years, including blocking motorways and London roads, with some activists receiving jail terms.

It called Friday’s action “the opening act” of its September plans, which “will act as a launch event for a five-phase plan to bring 100,000 people onto the streets in civil resistance next spring.”

A suicide bomber struck one of the biggest mosques in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 18 people, including an influential imam who earlier this year called for those who commit “the smallest act” against the government to be beheaded.

Images posted on Twitter showed what appeared to be blood-stained bodies scattered around the compound of Gazargah Mosque in Herat.

Violence has largely declined since the Taliban returned to power last year, but several bomb blasts — some targeting minority communities — have rocked the country in recent months, many claimed by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group.

At least 18 people, including prominent pro-Taliban cleric Mujib ur Rahman Ansari, were killed and 23 wounded in Friday’s suicide attack, said Hameedullah Motawakel, spokesman for the governor of Herat province.

“The bomber came near Ansari and then set off his explosives-laden vest,” Motawakel told AFP. 

Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had met Ansari just hours earlier in the day at a separate gathering in Herat, condemned the cleric’s killing.

“A strong and brave religious scholar of the country was martyred while performing Friday prayers,” Baradar said on Twitter.

“The perpetrators of this heinous act will be punished.”

No group has so far claimed the attack.

Ansari, who was in his late 30s, was an influential cleric known for his fiery speeches.

In July, during a religious gathering in Kabul, he strongly defended Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers.

“Whoever commits the smallest act against our Islamic government should be beheaded,” he said.

“This (Taliban) flag has not been raised easily, and it will not be lowered easily.”

Even before the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the ultra-conservative cleric had been calling for women to be fully covered in public, and for bans on musical concerts in Herat.

In his speeches, he used to regularly launch tirades against the previous US-backed governments.

Ansari is the second pro-Taliban cleric to be killed in a blast in less than a month, after an August 11 suicide attack targeted Rahimullah Haqqani at his madrassa in Kabul.

Haqqani was known for angry speeches against IS, who later claimed responsibility for his death.

He had also spoken in favour of girls being allowed to attend secondary school, despite the government banning them from attending classes in most provinces.

Several mosques across the country have been targeted this year, some in attacks claimed by IS.

At least 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded on August 17 when a blast ripped through a mosque packed with worshippers in Kabul.

IS has primarily targeted minority communities such as Shiites, Sufis and Sikhs.

While IS is a Sunni Islamist group like the Taliban, the two are bitter rivals and greatly diverge on ideological grounds.

Government officials claim that IS has been defeated but experts say the group is the main security challenge for the country’s current Islamist rulers.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– G7 to ‘urgently’ impose Russian oil price cap –

G7 members announce plans to urgently implement a price cap on Russian oil imports in an effort to sap the Kremlin of some of its export earnings and funding for the war in Ukraine.

“We commit to urgently work on the finalisation and implementation of this measure”, G7 finance ministers said in a statement.

The ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United States did not say what price they would pay for Russian crude.

They said they hoped other countries would follow their lead “in order to maximise effectiveness” of the measure.

The US has led the push for the price cap, which would mark a serious escalation of the West’s sanctions on Russia. Energy exports are Russia’s biggest earner.

– UN visit to nuclear plant ‘positive’: Kremlin –

The Kremlin describes as “very positive” the visit by UN inspectors to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, adding it is “too early” to evaluate the UN’s work.

A 14-strong team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived at the facility on Thursday to assess the impact of the war on its operations in the face of regular shelling of the area around the plant, which is close to the frontline.

“In general, we are very positive about the fact that, despite all the difficulties and problems… the commission arrived and started to work,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Thursday the “physical integrity” of the plant had been “violated” by the shelling and that staff would remain there until “Sunday or Monday” to continue their assessment.

– Russian warning on Nord Stream –

The Kremlin warns that the Nord Stream pipeline, which supplies Europe with Russian gas, may face future technical difficulties following three days of maintenance that put it out of action.

“There are no technical reserves, only one turbine is working,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“So the reliability of the operation, of the whole system, is at risk,” he said of the pipeline which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany.

Russia has slashed its gas deliveries to Europe on several occasions since the start of its offensive in Ukraine in response to Western sanctions, sending energy prices through the roof.

Europe has accused Moscow of using energy for blackmail and worked on securing alternative supplies in order to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

– US raids properties of Putin-allied oligarch –

US police have raided several properties belonging to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who is under Western sanctions, according to NBC News.

The raids targeted an apartment on Manhattan’s lavish Park Avenue, a house in the Hamptons, an upscale vacation destination near New York City, and a property on Miami’s Fisher Island believed to be linked to Vekselberg.

Vekselberg is the head of the Renova Group, a Moscow-based conglomerate. 

In April, his 90-million-euro ($99 million) superyacht was seized by Spanish authorities in Mallorca at the request of the US government.

burs-cb/bp

G20 energy talks in Bali ended Friday with the world’s leading economies pledging to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy, but there was no binding agreement as officials struggle to overcome discord over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The price of energy has skyrocketed since Moscow launched its military offensive, with many Western countries scrambling to find alternative sources in an attempt to cut ties with Russia.

Energy upheavals have put pressure on global efforts to address climate change.

Host Indonesia put forward a plan at the talks outlining principles to speed up a “fair” transition to greener energy and it was endorsed by the G20 nations.

The non-binding “Bali Compact”, which lists principles for achieving net zero emissions, was agreed by all members, Indonesian energy minister Arifin Tasrif said. 

Details were not released but the minister said the plan seeks to strengthen national energy planning and implementation to improve energy security, efficiency and boost investment and financing.

“G20 energy ministers sent a strong signal to the market that policymakers are taking action to strengthen the investment-enabling environment,” Tasrif told an online press conference Friday.

But the officials failed to reach a consensus on a joint communique due to “differences among countries” at the one-day meeting, Tasrif said without elaborating.

Several nations, including Britain and France, denounced the invasion of Ukraine and said it had destabilised energy supply. 

The presence of Russia at the forum meant a consensus could not be reached for a communique, a source close to the meeting told AFP.

The “current energy crisis shows the urgency to accelerate the energy transition”, the source added.

Representatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Germany, India, South Africa and the European Union were also present, according to a list seen by AFP. 

The energy talks follow G20 environment discussions in Bali on Wednesday that also ended without a joint communique, reflecting divisions among member countries over how to tackle climate change.

Britain’s climate minister Alok Sharma said governments should “revisit and strengthen” their commitments to achieving net zero emissions.

“There must not be any backsliding on commitments,” he tweeted on Wednesday. 

This week’s talks are a prelude to a November leaders’ summit that Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will attend despite Moscow’s isolation.