Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga says he would challenge last week's presidential election result in court, calming fears that further street protests by his supporters might lead to widespread violence.
At least 24 people have been killed since the August 8 vote, many of them shot by police. But while there have been scattered protests in Odinga strongholds, the demonstrations were relatively muted as supporters waited to hear what Odinga had to say.
When Odinga, a 72-year-old former political prisoner, called a news conference after days of public silence, crowds clustered around televisions and radios in the slums, falling silent as he began to speak.
"We have now decided to move to the Supreme Court," Odinga told a bank of television cameras in the capital Nairobi. "This is just the beginning, we will not accept and move on."
The election board said on Friday Kenyatta had beaten Odinga by 1.4 million votes to win a second five-year term. Odinga disputes that figure but has not yet provided proof of rigging.
The move to the judiciary will relieve Kenyans who feared a repeat of the violence that followed the flawed 2007 vote, when Odinga called for protests which led to a police crackdown and ethnic violence. Around 1200 people died.
Odinga also contested - and officially lost - the 2013 election but quelled potential violence by taking his case to court.
Judges ruled that much of his evidence was submitted outside time limits set by the court, which raised suspicion among his supporters of the judiciary's independence.
Odinga acknowledged those frustrations, even as he backtracked on earlier opposition statements that going to court was not an option.
"Our decision to go to court constitutes a second chance for the Supreme Court. The court can use this chance to redeem itself," he said.
"By going to court we are not legitimising misplaced calls from some observers for us to concede. We are seeking to give to those who braved the long lines in the morning chill and hot afternoon ... a chance to be heard," Odinga said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the European Union observer mission, which has broadly praised the vote so far, urged the election commission to publish all remaining forms showing vote tallies on its website to ensure transparency.
Each individual polling station should have a form detailing the votes for each candidate, signed by all party observers. But Andrew Limo, an election commission spokesman, said about 2900 of the 41,000 forms showing results at individual polling stations were not yet online.
