Election diary: How we got here

A lady marks her ballot papers while voting at the NSSF grounds polling station, Starehe constituency in Nairobi during Kenya's general elections on 08/08/2017. [Photo/PIUS CHERUIYOT/STANDARD)

When Kenyans went to the polls on August 8 to elect their leaders, little did they know that they would have another election to contend with.

The events that led to today’s repeat presidential election have been the most dramatic in the history of the country.

History has been written in the process, with most Kenyans wondering whether the electioneering period will ever end.

The August 8 presidential election was preceded by two months of acrimonious campaigns pitting the two main candidates,Jubilee Party’s Uhuru Kenyatta and National Super Alliance (NASA) candidate Raila Odinga.

Days before polling day, Chris Msando, an IT manager at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), was murdered, casting a shadow over the entire process.

But election day was eerily calm, with more than 15.5 million Kenyans voting for president, governors, senators, parliamentarians, local assembly members, and woman representatives.

As initial votes were being counted in the early hours of August 9, NASA cried foul, faulting the figures that were being churned out on national television indicating that Uhuru was leading.

Poll results

The alliance’s presidential campaign team leader, Musalia Mudavadi, flanked by Ugenya Senator James Orengo, called a press conference and demanded an end to the live streaming of poll results until forms 34A and 34B were verified.

But an adamant IEBC would hear none of it. On August 11, Chairman Wafula Chebukati declared Kenyatta the winner with 54.27 per cent of the votes, against 44.74 per cent for Odinga.

What followed were two days of demonstrations and riots in which at least 21 people, including a baby and a nine-year-old girl, were killed.

Even though Raila had declared that he would not move to court to challenge the poll results, things changed when at a press conference he announced that NASA would contest the election at the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court.

The alliance went on to file its petition on August 18, minutes before the constitutional deadline, setting the stage for a court battle with Jubilee.

The Supreme Court delivered its verdict on September 1, annulling the election of Uhuru in an unprecedented ruling and ordering IEBC to conduct a fresh election within 60 days, culminating in today's poll.