Kenyan president says Supreme Court election ruling was "coup"

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Thursday the country's Supreme Court staged a "coup" against the will of the people when it annulled last month's presidential election that he won.

"A coup in Kenya has just been done by the four people in the Supreme Court," Kenyatta said in a live, televised speech delivered mostly in Kiswahili. "(The court is saying) 'numbers don't matter, it is processes that matter.'"

The court annulled President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election earlier this month saying there were irregularities and illegalities. It made the decision in response to the opposition leader Raila Odinga's petition challenging the official results that Kenyatta won with 54 percent of the vote. 

The electoral commission has set Oct. 17 as the date for a fresh election. 

The court's detailed judgment given on Wednesday hinged on the failure of the election board to check electronic tallies, which are vulnerable to typos, against paper forms intended as a fail-safe backup before announcing results.

Judges did not say they found evidence of rigging.

Kenya used two parallel systems: a quick electronic tally vulnerable to typos and a slower paper system designed as a verifiable, definitive back-up. 

The system was designed that way after a disputed 2007 presidential vote sparked violence that killed around 1,200 people and displaced some 600,000 more.

Kenyatta said he would respect the court's decision but said it subverted the will of the people.