The Future of Kenya's Democracy Is Hanging in the Balance

NAIROBI, Kenya—The police officers, dressed in their military greens, were so well-armed they could have been preparing for a war. On the morning of October 26, they secured a perimeter around a polling station at Olympic Primary School in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, to safeguard what would be Kenya’s second presidential election in three months. In September, the Supreme Court had thrown out the results of the August 8 election over alleged irregularities and illegalities, a decision widely hailed as a milestone for judicial independence in Africa.

But the triumph of the court’s decision was short-lived. Few people came to the school to vote on October 26, a sharp contrast from August 8, when of Kenyans had lined up to cast their ballots. Instead, angry protestors who questioned the vote’s credibility lobbed rocks and bottles at