2017 — The Election the Courts Annulled

On August 8, 2017, nearly twenty million Kenyans voted in general elections, and President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner. Raila Odinga cried fraud, challenging the result and carrying the dispute from the ballot box to the courts, where the future of the election would be decided by judges rather than crowds.

On September 1, Kenya's Supreme Court annulled a sitting president's re-election — a first for Africa. The ruling became a landmark of judicial power, proof that a court could overturn even a president's victory. It was also a warning about how fragile electoral trust remains, even when institutions hold.