FALLOUT FROM OFFICIAL’S MURDER
Anxious Kenyans seek safety in villages before election day
Nairobi — Passengers jostled with ticket touts and hawkers at Kenya’s main bus stations on Thursday as thousands started leaving cities before the August 8 vote, some because they are registered in rural wards, others because they fear violence. Jitters over the polls, which come a decade after 1,200 people were killed after a disputed election, intensified this week with the torture and murder of an election commission official. Printing company worker George Omondi, an ethnic Luo, said he was taking his wife and children back to their home village of Oyugis in western Kenya, a stronghold of opposition leader and fellow Luo Raila Odinga. "I won’t risk my life by staying in Nairobi," Omondi said, as he pushed through a scrum of people to board a bus at Nairobi’s central bus station. "I’m going to my village and will stay there until after results are announced," he said. "We feel safer at home." Voters in the nation of 49-million will pick a president, members of parliament and regi...
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