Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), has protested that he was robbed of victory, describing the elections as “marred by a lack of transparency in the processing and tallying of presidential results, which raises concerns about the accuracy of the final results” (BBC).

The Associated Press notes that in the run up to the elections “allegations of corruption - including voter intimidation and violence - was a dominant issue, with both Kibaki and Odinga vowing to end the graft that has scared off foreign investment and cost taxpayers millions of dollars."

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, chief of the European Union Observer Commision, commented that the election fell short of the UN Charter on Civil and Political Rights which Kenya is signatory to, The Nation reports. The BBC notes that both Kibaki and Odinga’s parties accuse one another of result rigging at polling stations and constituency offices.

AFP reports that talks in the first week of January, led by the African Union and Ghanaian President John Kufuor, “ended in failure”, and Odinga “is refusing to recognise Kibaki's re-election or to sit down with him until he admits to fraud." According to Time, Odinga rejected an invitation from Kibaki to meet as “public relations gimmickry."

Reuters reports that the ODM party is filing a complaint with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, charging Mr. Kibaki with “crimes against humanity.” Meanwhile, the government “has taken out full-page adverts in newspapers accusing Western powers, the international media and rights groups of fanning unrest by questioning the election result” (Reuters).

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Nairobi on 22 January to lead a new push for a resolution to the crisis. An EU source told Reuters that if nothing positive emerges from Annan’s mission, the EU would "seriously review" its relations with Kenya, including the issue of sanctions.

To read Transparency International's press release on the situation, please click here.