By Matthew Ponsford
LONDON, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Aid agencies said on Wednesday they had stockpiled supplies in hotspots across Kenya and set aside emergency funds should conflict erupt after its "do-or-die" election.
By Matthew Ponsford
LONDON, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Aid agencies said on Wednesday they had stockpiled supplies in hotspots across Kenya and set aside emergency funds should conflict erupt after its "do-or-die" election.
"This is extremely high stakes. There's an incredible amount of fear on the ground," said Sarah Klassen, crisis anticipation officer for a group of 42 aid agencies from around the world.
She spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone, saying the seven hotspots were chosen as likely epicentres for fighting in the aftermath of Tuesday's election.
Results from the vote could take days to emerge, with accusations of massive fraud already surfacing and fears rising of a repeat of the fighting that followed elections in 2007.
Klassen said the combined agencies - 11 of whom are active on the ground - aimed to mitigate the fallout from any repeat clashes, after more than 1,000 people died in 2007's ethnic conflict.
To that end, Start Network - a group of international NGOs including ActionAid, Norwegian Refugee Council, and Christian Aid - stationed food and supplies in the high-risk locations, set up child-safe areas, and mapped routes for residents to escape the anticipated violence.
Klassen called Tuesday's vote a "do-or-die" race, with Kenyans likening it to 2007 and raising fears that drought and high unemployment will aggravate tensions.
"All three of the scenarios our research produced [anticipating different election outcomes] involved some degree of violence - largely pockets of localised violence throughout the country, in both rural and urban areas."
The vote has pitted President Uhuru Kenyatta, a wealthy 55-year-old businessman and the son of Kenya's founding president, against 72-year-old Raila Odinga, a former political prisoner and son of Kenya's first vice-president.
Odinga raised fears of unrest on Wednesday by claiming early reports of a commanding lead for his opponent were the result of a hack into election commission computer systems, leading to massive fraud.
A senior election official was found murdered last week, poll officials said, as Odinga's opposition group, the National Super Alliance (NASA), said the killing could unleash turmoil.
The election commission said on Wednesday the voting process was free and fair and it was investigating whether or not its computer system was hacked.
Bijay Kumar, executive director of ActionAid Kenya, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the Start Network has mobilised workers since the election in areas where Odinga has strong support, including in the largest cities, Mombasa and Nairobi.
"People are now watching and waiting," Kumar said by phone from Nairobi, adding that there have been no indications of violence so far. The NGOs are drawing on lessons learned in the 2015 elections in Burundi, where alerts were raised in the run-up to the election, but funds were only released to agencies on the ground after clashes began.
Klassen said the Start Network's fund of 300,000 pounds ($390,000) is a "huge shift" for the humanitarian sector, which is more used to reacting to trouble after it happens.
"The humanitarian system right now, it's not working - it's too expensive. We wait until things explode and then we allocate money, and it doesn't make sense," she added. ($1 = 0.7699 pounds)
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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