At least 15 people have been killed after violence erupted in Kenya during the presidential elections.

The incredibly tight race between Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the first since 2007, which also saw a harrowing amount of violence, with over 1000 people killed:

One of the attacks on Monday took place on the outskirts of Mombasa and another in Kilifi about 50 km (80 miles) to the north. Police blamed a separatist movement, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), which wanted the national vote scrapped and a referendum on secession instead.

At the Kilifi site, a piece of paper lay on the ground with the words: “MRC. Coast is not Kenya. We don’t want elections. We want our own country.

But the group’s spokesman denied responsibility and said it only sought change by peaceful means.

Kenya’s neighbors have been watching nervously, after their economies suffered five years ago when violence shut down regional trade routes.

Adding to tension, the al Shabaab Islamist militant group battling Kenyan peacekeeping troops in Somalia urged Muslims to boycott the vote in Kenya and wage jihad against its military.

 

Read more at Reuters.