The Latest: US campaign data firm says Kenya to deport CEO who worked for opposition candidate.
The Latest on Kenya’s presidential election (all times local) :
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5 p.m.
A U. S.-based company that works on campaign data is confirming that its CEO has been detained in Kenya and faces deportation after working on the opposition’s campaign ahead of Tuesday’s tightly contested presidential election.
Brandi Travis of Aristotle, Inc. says John Aristotle Phillips, an American, and Canadian staffer Andreas Katsouris were detained Friday night and face deportation later Saturday. Travis says Phillips is currently at the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi.
Travis says the two men were assisting opposition candidate Raila Odinga with issues including strategy and data analysis and had chosen to get involved in the Kenyan election because they thought it had the potential for irregularities.
“We pick our international campaigns very carefully, ” Travis says. “Odinga was a candidate they really believed in.”
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1: 50 p.m.
The U. S. Embassy in Kenya says an American and a Canadian who were detained ahead of Tuesday’s tightly contested election are “safe and departing” the country.
The embassy said Saturday on Twitter that U. S. and Canadian officials have been in touch with their detained citizens as well as the Kenyan government.
Kenya’s main opposition coalition says the American and the Canadian were assisting its campaign and that they were detained on Friday. It is not immediately clear why they were detained.
James Orengo, a senior member of the National Super Alliance, says two Ghanaians working on the opposition campaign also have been deported.
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1: 10 p.m.
Kenya’s main opposition group says an American and a Canadian who were assisting its campaign ahead of Tuesday’s tightly contested presidential election have been deported.
James Orengo, a senior member of the National Super Alliance, said Saturday that the two foreigners were taken from their homes on Friday. He says the detentions occurred at around the same time that armed and masked police raided an opposition vote counting center, intimidating workers and seizing equipment.
A police official earlier said immigration officials were holding the American and the Canadian at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with the media.
Kenyan police say allegations that officers broke into political party offices on Friday are false and that no report of a burglary has been made to any police station.
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12: 25 p.m.
Kenya’s main opposition group says an American and a Canadian who were assisting its campaign ahead of Tuesday’s tightly contested presidential election have been detained.
James Orengo, a senior member of the opposition National Super Alliance, said Saturday that the two foreigners were taken from their homes on Friday. Orengo says the detentions occurred at around the same time that armed and masked police raided an opposition vote counting center, intimidating workers and seizing equipment.
A police official says immigration officials are holding the American and the Canadian at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with the media.
— Tom Odula in Nairobi.
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12 p.m.
Kenya’s presidential candidates are diving into a final day of campaigning before Tuesday’s narrowly contested election as many worry that the vote could turn violent.
President Uhuru Kenyatta again faces longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga. Kenyatta is the son of Kenya’s first president; Odinga is the son of the country’s first vice president.
Recent elections have been contested and more than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence a decade ago.
Some in the East African nation have been leaving the capital because of the threat of chaos, while many are simply going home to vote.
The torture and killing in recent days of a key election official in charge of the electronic voting system has some concerned about the possibility of vote tampering.
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