Election Called; Unfairness Alleged

National elections will be held Dec. 29, the government declared, ignoring opposition claims that Kenya’s laws still give the president an unfair advantage. Protesters demanding reforms to make the elections free and fair have been repeatedly beaten by police, who killed more than a dozen protesters in July and August. Another 70 people have died in election-related violence on the Indian Ocean coast. President Daniel Arap Moi--seeking a fifth five-year term--dissolved parliament this week, sending lawmakers home after they passed reform bills that the country’s 22 Roman Catholic bishops have called cosmetic and insufficient. Justice Zacchaeus Chesoni, chairman of the electoral commission that set the vote date, said the election will reduce the nation’s economic uncertainty.