The main opposition leader in the 2017 general election in Kenya, Raila Odinga has sworn himself in as President of Kenya in Nairobi, the country's capital.

The event was witnessed by thousands of Mr Odinga's supporters although it was warned by the authorities that it sparks up treason in the state.

Mr Odinga competed with sitting President Uhuru Kenyatta in a re run election after the Kenyan Supreme Court had dismissed the general election which was held in August and ordered that a new election was to be conducted within sixty days.

Raila Odinga however boycotted the election which was declared massively in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta organised in October last year.

Speaking to the Kenyan Press, Mr Odinga stated that his “swearing-in” was intended to “show the world that what we are doing is legal, constitutional and not something you can remotely describe as a coup”.

The 20 minutes event threw disappointment in the faces of the present audience, wondering why the event was a low-key one.

His running mate  Kalonzo Musyoka, was not at the event, and Mr Odinga had said Mr Musyoka would be “sworn-in” at a later date.

An audience present at the event while speaking in an interview with the BBC stated saying,“we have warned the police enough and we are also going as per the constitution. The constitution of Kenya, article one, allows all Kenyans to exercise their power directly".

He further said “This is why we are here to exercise our powers by gathering here and also article 37 allows peaceful assembly. We are citizens of this country, we are allowed to peacefully assemble here and elect our president as per the constitution.”

Police allowed the event to take place, despite warning earlier that they would prevent it from going ahead.
Three privately owned television stations – NTV, KTN and Citizen TV – went off air from around 09:10 (06:10 GMT), as per the BBC Monitoring reports.

Citizen TV told the BBC the authorities had forced them off the air over plans to cover the gathering.
It live streamed the event on its website, and on YouTube and Facebook.

KTN viewers watched their screens fade to black as the news presenter read a statement confirming that the national communications authority was switching off the transmission.

Switching off the broadcasting signals of media organisations is unusual in Kenya, the BBC’s Anne Soy reports from Nairobi.

Threats have been made in the past and some media groups have been raided, but none have had their signal deliberately disrupted.

Kenyan journalists have denounced the move as outrageous and in a statement called for “respect of the constitution” and an end to the “unprecedented intimidation of journalists”.

There was tension in Kenya on Tuesday as some schools closed in the capital because of the event, and people did not know what to expect, our correspondent says.

Mr Kenyatta was officially re-elected with 98% of the vote on 26 October but just under 39% of voters turned out. He was inaugurated in November.

His victory is not recognised by Mr Odinga, who argues he was elected by a small section of the country.
Mr Kenyatta also won the original election on 8 August but that result was annulled by the Supreme Court, which described it as “neither transparent nor verifiable”.

When the repeat vote was called, Mr Odinga urged his supporters to shun it because he said no reforms had been made to the electoral commission.

Correspondents say the election dispute has left Kenya deeply divided. About 50 people are reported to have been killed in violence since the August ballot.

Ghanaguardian.com