Deadly protests in Kenya as opposition alleges vote hacking

Residents of the Mathare area of Nairobi, Kenya, take to the streets by blocking roads with burning tyres to protest in support of Kenyan opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga, Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017. Odinga alleges that hackers manipulated the Tuesday election results which appear to show President Uhuru Kenyatta has a wide lead over Odinga. (AP Photo. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Residents of the Mathare area of Nairobi, Kenya, take to the streets by blocking roads with burning tyres to protest in support of Kenyan opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga, Wednesday Aug. 9, 2017. Odinga alleges that hackers manipulated the Tuesday election results which appear to show President Uhuru Kenyatta has a wide lead over Odinga. (AP Photo. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Kenya's election took an ominous turn Wednesday as violent protests erupted in the capital and elsewhere after opposition leader Raila Odinga alleged fraud, saying hackers used the identity of a murdered official to infiltrate the database of the country's election commission and manipulate results.

With results from almost all of the polling stations counted, President Uhuru Kenyatta was shown with a wide lead over Odinga in his bid for a second term.

Soon after Odinga spoke on television, angry protesters in slums of Nairobi and the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in the southwest burned tires, set up roadblocks and clashed with police, witnesses said.

Two people were shot dead in Nairobi as they took advantage of the protests to steal, Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome said. An Associated Press photographer said one was shot in the head. Police killed one person when they opened fire on protesters in another opposition stronghold in Kisii county, said Leonard Katana, a regional police commander.

Many parts of Kenya, East Africa's commercial hub, were calm a day after the elections for president and more than 1,800 other posts down to the county level. However, the violence stirred memories of the unrest following the 2007 vote in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Odinga lost that election; he also lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and took allegations of vote-tampering to the Supreme Court, which rejected his case.

Odinga, a former prime minister, blamed Kenyatta's Jubilee Party for the alleged hacking of the election database.

"The fraud Jubilee has perpetuated on Kenyans surpasses any level of voter theft in our country's history. This time we caught them," he tweeted. He also posted online what he said were computer logs proving his allegation.

Odinga claimed hackers used the identity of Christopher Msando, an election official in charge of managing information technology systems. On July 31, officials announced Msando had been tortured and killed, alarming Kenyans who feared a recurrence of political violence that has been fueled by ethnic divisions.

A Tuesday morning entry in the purported computer logs Odinga posted on Facebook reads: "Login failed for user 'msando'. Reason: The password of the account must be changed."

Rafael Tuju, a top official in Kenyatta's party, said the opposition's claims were unfounded.