The president’s criticism comes as Kenya’s political temperature is heating up, reviving fears of political violence. Clashes killed around 1,200 people following a disputed 2007 presidential vote.
“A coup in Kenya has just been done by the four people in the Supreme Court,” Kenyatta said in a televised meeting with supporters, delivered mostly in Kiswahili. “(The court is saying) ‘numbers don’t matter, it is processes that matter.'”
Immediately following the court’s surprise Sept. 1 ruling to annul the vote, Kenyatta had called for calm and respect for the ruling. But he later started to criticize the court.
The decision to nullify the race on procedural grounds was the first time a judicial body canceled the election of an incumbent African president.
Kenya, a Western ally, has East Africa’s richest economy and is a hub for diplomacy, security and trade in a region often battered by conflict. Any sign of political instability sends ripples through the region.
The election board had said last month that Kenyatta won the Aug. 8 vote by 1.4 million more votes than his chief rival, veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who contested the result in court.
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