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Kenya's Odinga Rejects Election Re-run Date Without 'Guarantees'

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FILE - Kenyan Supreme Court judges.
FILE - Kenyan Supreme Court judges.

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Tuesday his coalition would not participate in the re-run of a presidential election proposed for Oct. 17 unless it is given “legal and constitutional” guarantees.

Odinga's conditions include the removal of some officials at the election board. He wants criminal investigations to be opened against them.

“You cannot do a mistake twice and expect to get different results,” Odinga told reporters.

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga addresses a crowd of his supporters in the Kibera area of Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 2, 2017.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga addresses a crowd of his supporters in the Kibera area of Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 2, 2017.

Kenya's Supreme Court ordered on Friday that the Aug. 8 vote be re-run within 60 days, saying President Uhuru Kenyatta's victory by 1.4 million votes was undermined by irregularities in the process.

Kenyatta was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta flanked by his deputy, William Ruto, addresses the nation at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 1, 2017.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta flanked by his deputy, William Ruto, addresses the nation at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 1, 2017.

On Monday, the election board said it would hold new elections on Oct. 17. But Odinga said he wanted elections held on Oct. 24 or 31 instead.

“There will be no elections on the seventeenth of October until the conditions that we have spelt out in the statement are met,” he said.

Odinga has contested and lost the last three presidential elections in Kenya. Each time, he has said the vote was rigged against him.

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