The US and the UK embassies in Kenya offered to help investigate the murder of a key electoral official a week before the east African nation holds presidential elections.
The body of Chris Msando, a systems development manager at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) who went missing on Friday night, was found on Monday at a mortuary in the capital, Nairobi.
Msando had been scheduled to lead a test of an electronic election-results transmission system on Monday, according to the main opposition National Super Alliance.
“The US and the UK are gravely concerned by the murder,” US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec and UK High Commissioner Nic Hailey said in a joint statement e-mailed from Nairobi. “We have offered our assistance in the investigation.”
Elections in Kenya are fraught times for investors because a dispute over the outcome of a 2007 vote triggered two months of violence that left 1,100 people dead.
Last month, Kenya’s main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, accused the commission of plotting to rig the election.
The former prime minister, who is challenging Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, has warned there might be violence if the electoral authority fails to ensure this year’s process, to be held on Tuesday next week, is credible.
“It is critical that Kenya have free, fair, credible and peaceful elections on Aug. 8, and protection for IEBC staff is essential to achieving this goal,” the ambassadors said.
Msando’s body showed signs of having being tortured, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said.
The commission is working with the police to ensure the killers are caught, he told reporters on Monday.
“This gruesome murder, just a week before hotly contested elections, should sound alarm bells for the Kenyan government and highlight the need for them to up their game in terms of ensuring the safety of key officials at this tense time,” Amnesty International researcher Abdullahi Halakhe said in a statement e-mailed from Nairobi.
The IEBC postponed testing of its election results-transmission system and is to announce a new date soon, Chebukati said.
The commission is working to ensure all of its employees’ lives are “secured” before voting day, he said.
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