At least one dead and 11 injured when a car crashed into a crowd during an election rally in Kenya

Aug. 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least one person has died and 11 others are injured after a vehicle ran over a group of attendees at a rally held in southwestern Kenya, in the closing of the campaign ahead of the general elections next Tuesday.

The incident took place in the town of Eburi, Kisii county, for reasons still under investigation, but the first testimonies suggest that behind the flyer was the politician Frank Mirina, a candidate for local elections in Kisii Central, who ended up running over to a group of people who had blocked the road and demanded to speak to him.

The Toyota Land Cruiser he was driving, part of an entourage of fellow Central Kisii governor candidate Simba Arati, was later incinerated by an angry mob.

The commander of the Kisii Police, Musyoki Mutungi, has explained that the causes of the event are under investigation and has called for calm during the last hours of the campaign in Kenya, reports the Kenyan newspaper ‘The Nation’.

Kenya’s main presidential election contenders, Raila Odinga and William Ruto, have vowed to call on their supporters to refrain from resorting to violence during the election campaign in the face of the 2017 election, which ended in fifty dead and more than a hundred wounded.

Odinga leads the opinion polls ahead of the elections on August 9 with almost two points difference over Ruto. The leader of the Azimio La Umoja coalition and ally of President Kenyatta obtained a 46.7 percent voter intention compared to 44.4 percent for his rival and leader of the so-called United Democratic Alliance, according to an opinion poll by Tifa .