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Game of Throne in Kenya as Deputy President, Ruto, swipes at President Kenyatta over candidacy

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President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya’s decision to support the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to become the next president appears not to go down well with Deputy President William Ruto.

Ruto accused Kenyatta of bad economic policies claiming that Kenya was heading in the wrong direction and that he will fix the mess within 30 days after being elected into office.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta endorsed his former arch rival for the country’s top job, weeks after their parties joined forces ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in August.

“We have chosen Raila Odinga, without any opposition, to be the fifth president of Kenya,” Kenyatta told a cheering crowd of thousands in the capital Nairobi.

Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto is due to be nominated by his new party to stand for the presidency in an August election after his public split with President Uhuru Kenyatta who is backing another candidate.

The statement was in relation to current Kenya’s public debt which has risen by $61.32 billion from nearly 17 billion dollars since Kenyatta assumed office in 2013.

Ruto was declared as the presidential candidate to his new outfit, the United Democratic Alliance party on Tuesday during a national delegation that brought in more than 5,000 delegates across the country.

He also accused Kenyatta of failing to honour his 2017 election promises and using state institutions to persecute political opponents.

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Kenya: Senior ICC prosecutor drops probe into 2007 post-election violence

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A senior official of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Nazhat Shameen Khan has announced an end to all further investigations into crimes committed in Kenya relating to violence that erupted following elections in 2007.

The ICC Deputy Chief Prosecutor said the 13-year legal saga, which involved senior Kenyan politicians, had been dropped

“I have reached this decision after considering the specific facts and circumstances of this situation,” she said in a statement.

“Accordingly, the Office will not pursue additional cases into the alleged criminal responsibility of other persons.”

Prosecutors claim that during the nation’s post-election violence in 2010, some 600,000 people were left homeless, and 1,300 people killed in a case in which suspects included former and current Kenyan presidents, Uhuru Kenyatta and President William Ruto. The Hague-based tribunal began looking into the incident in 2010. Six suspects were initially charged with crimes against humanity, which included deportation and murder.

However, in 2014, former chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda dropped the charges against Kenyatta, and in 2016, the prosecution’s case against Ruto was also dropped due to insufficient evidence. The lack of evidence caused the case against all six to fall apart.

Prosecutors opened a new investigation into witness intimidation and bribery after Bensouda claimed that an unrelenting campaign of intimidation against victims and witnesses prevented a trial.

Decades after the “third wave of democratisation,” widespread violence still occurs in sub-Saharan Africa after elections. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Zimbabwe, among others, have had their share of election conflicts.

Kenya is still not free from election disturbances, as levels of violence also played out during and after the 2022 elections.

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Sierra Leonean govt finally labels weekend attack ‘failed coup’

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The Sierra Leonean government has finally labelled attacks on several locations in the capital, Freetown, on Sunday as failed attempt to overthrow the government, having previously refraining from so classifying it.

Authorities in the West African nation said that gunmen stormed a military barracks, a prison, and other locations on Sunday, freeing roughly 2,200 prisoners and leaving over 20 people dead. On Monday, everything had returned to normal.

“The incident was a failed attempted coup. The intention was to illegally subvert and overthrow a democratically elected government,” said President Julius Bio.

“The attempt failed, and plenty of the leaders are either in police custody or on the run. We will try to capture them and bring them to the full force of the laws of Sierra Leone.”

The tense situation in Sierra Leone, which is still recuperating from a civil war that claimed over 50,000 lives between 1991 and 2002, has persisted since Bio was re-elected in June.

International allies, such as the US and the EU, questioned the outcome, and the major opposition candidate rejected it.

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