NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s Supreme Court plans to hear last-minute arguments that Thursday’s presidential election should be postponed because a free and fair vote cannot be guaranteed.
The top court, whose surprise decision to annul the Aug. 8 election over irregularities set the stage for this week’s new vote, said it will convene Wednesday morning to hear petitioners who allege that Kenya’s electoral commission is in disarray and prone to political interference.
A large number of voters would be disenfranchised because opposition leader Raila Odinga, who withdrew from the new election after challenging the first one in court, wants supporters to boycott the vote while seeking electoral reforms, the petition says.
The court hearing will occur even though Kenya’s interior ministry has declared Wednesday and Thursday to be public holidays.
Late Tuesday, the police driver of the Supreme Court’s deputy chief justice, Philomena Mwilu, was shot and seriously wounded after being assaulted by two men who arrived on a motorbike, Nairobi police and a witness said.
The motive for the attack was unclear. In September, Chief Justice David Maraga said attempts to intimidate the Supreme Court judges after they nullified the August vote have been “unlawful and savage in nature.”
Hours before the shooting of the driver, Kenyan police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse small groups of opposition protesters in downtown Nairobi. The confrontations occurred amid bustling traffic and forced some city workers and passers-by to hurry away from clouds of tear gas.
A police officer told The Associated Press that he and his colleagues were firing blanks.