At least 24 people have been killed in Kenya in the violence that erupted after the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, said Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
“Specifically, these cases indicate that the casualties were felled by bullets and the same has been corroborated by family and community members who have indicated that they were killed during the protests which broke out in various parts of the country,” the independent rights group said in a statement. Of those death, 17 were killed in the capital Nairobi, the group said.
Kenyatta, the 55-year-old son of the country’s founding President, won a second five-year term Friday, defeating veteran opposition leader and longtime rival Raila Odinga in a tense contest.
Kenyatta, who promised to create 1.3 million jobs, got 54% of the vote while Odinga, who vowed to fight corruption, received 45%.
Protests and violence broke out almost immediately. Most of the demonstrators were supporters of 72-year-old former political prisoner Odinga, who has rejected the results of the presidential election, calling the vote rigged. National election officials have decried the accusations, saying the vote was free and credible.
Protests erupted in and around Kisumu, a stronghold of defeated opposition leader Odinga. Violence also broke out in Nairobi’s slum of Mathare, where tear gas and gunshots rang out all night, witnesses said.
Kenya Red Cross Society said that it had treated at least 93 people injured in the violence.
