The BBC Africa Live team has been debating the unprecedented nature of today's decision by Kenya's Supreme Court to annul the result of last month's presidential election.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who took the case to court, said this was the first time that this has happened in Africa.

In the last 30 years there are other examples where results have been annulled or elections have been cancelled.

• 1991/2 - Algeria - military cancelled the second round of parliamentary elections which looked like they were going to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front
• 1993 - Nigeria - election of Moshood Abiola as president was annulled by the military leader at the time, Ibrahim Babangida
• 2010 - Ivory Coast - the Constitutional Council annulled the result of the presidential election after opposition leader Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner

So we think that today's ruling makes Kenya the first African country where an opposition court challenge against a presidential poll result has been successful.

Image source, EPA

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has said: "I personally disagree with the ruling but I respect it."

"I disagree with it because millions of Kenyans... made their choice and six people have decided that they will go against the will of the people."

He was referring to the panel of six judges who made the ruling at the Supreme Court that nullified last month's presidential election result.

Mr Kenyatta had been announced the winner of the poll.

The ruling was made by majority decision - 4-2.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for peace in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to annul last month's presidential election.

He said "take the hand of your brother and your sister and shake it and say 'amani' - peace... and I repeat again peace".

"Your neighbour will still be your neighbour... regardless of political affiliation."

Making his first comments since the judgement, Wafula Chebukati, the head of Kenya's electoral commission, IEBC, said he will implement the judges' decision to rerun the election.

He added that the commission will make changes to personnel and processes in advance of the fresh election, due in 60 days time.

Mr Chebukati argued that the problem that judges identified was in the transmission of the results rather than in the voting and counting processes at the polling stations.

He also invited Kenya's chief prosecutor to investigate any staff who may have been involved in breaking election laws.

And he urged the Supreme Court to publish its full ruling, which it has to do within 21 days, so it can make changes to its processes as soon as possible.

Image source, Reuters

The chairperson of Kenya's electoral commission, the IEBC, Wafula Chebukati has said he will not resign in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to annul last month's presidential election result.

Image source, KTN

Ambassadors from the US, Canada and various European countries have issued a joint statement praising Kenya in the wake of the court decision annulling last month's presidential election result.

They described the decision as "an important moment for Kenya".

Image source, EPA

Our reporter in Kenya's opposition stronghold of Kisumu in the west of the country has been in the midst of the celebrations following the Supreme Court decision to annul the presidential election result that gave victory to Uhuru Kenyatta:

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has remained quiet throughout the court process, is due to speak to the nation shortly, according to this tweet from his spokesperson:

Sammy Maina
BBC Monitoring

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s legal team has condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify his re-election.

The six-judge bench issued a majority ruling upholding a petition filed by the opposition National Super Alliance (Nasa), and ordered a fresh election in 60 days.

In its judgement, the court did not suggest any wrongdoing from Mr Kenyatta:

Kenya's electoral commission, the IEBC, is at the centre of the storm around the annulled presidential election.

If you're wondering why we haven't reported its side of the story, it is because the commissioners have not said anything yet.

But that is about to change.

They have said they'll be addressing the press in just under half an hour.

Image source, Reuters

If you're suffering from information overload over the news that Kenya's presidential election has been annulled, listen to the BBC's Solomon Mugera sum up the whole story in exactly a minute:

Odeo Sirari
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Here are the details of the IT expert's evidence from earlier this week:

• Nearly a third of the results forms have irregularities: some are blank, some are signed in the same handwriting, some come from polling stations that didn’t officially exist, some show results that differed from the totals, and from the totals announced by the electoral commission, and thousands lack official stamps, signatures, and watermarks
• Some five million votes, enough to affect the outcome, were not verified
• On examining the electoral commission logs the Supreme Court-appointed team found that numerous unauthorised users had entered the system before and after the election

Chief Justice David Maraga said that the court will release the full ruling in due course.

The judgement today made to annul Kenya's presidential election was made by six judges.

There are meant to be seven judges on the Supreme Court bench.

One resident in Kiambu, an Uhuru Kenyatta stronghold, told the BBC's Peter Njoroge that, for him, this looks suspicious:

The full bench was meant to consist of Chief Justice David Maraga, his Deputy Lady Justice Philomena Mwilu, Lady Justice Njoki Ndung'u, and justices Smokin Wanjala, Mohamed Khadhar Ibrahim, Jackton Boma Ojwang and Isaac Lenaola, the Conversation website reported earlier this week, external.

Our reporter says that there's a calm atmosphere in Kiambu and though people were not expecting this ruling they say they will maintain peace and will be ready to vote again.

Kenyan Senator Irungu Kang'ata, who is from the Jubilee Party of Uhuru Kenyatta, has been objecting to the Supreme Court ruling that annulled last month's presidential election result giving Mr Kenyatta victory.

He told Kenya's KTN News that the judges admitted that they hadn't had time to read all the submissions:

Image source, KTN

As the Supreme Court is Kenya's highest court the ruling cannot be challenged.

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga says that today's Supreme Court ruling annulling the presidential election is unprecedented in Africa.

We're scratching our heads to find any other examples on the continent - but there are a few global examples in recent years where a court has annulled a presidential vote:

• Ukraine in 2004
• Maldives in 2013
• Austria in 2016

Image source, Reuters

If you're just checking the Africa Live page for the first time today, there has been some big news: Kenya's presidential election has been annulled.

Here's what we know so far:

• Kenya’s Supreme Court overturned the results of last month’s presidential election
• It called for a new vote within 60 days

• Four out of six judges said irregularities harmed the integrity of the vote
• The judges said Kenya’s electoral commission had not conducted the vote in line with the constitution
• This follows an opposition alliance challenge, which said the vote was fraudulent
• It said the electronic system used in the process had failed
• The election results had put President Uhuru Kenyatta more than a million votes ahead of Raila Odinga of the opposition Nasa alliance
• Today’s court ruling is a major victory for the opposition alliance. It had initially said it did not trust the courts to make a fair decision but later went ahead with a legal challenge.
• The announcement is unprecedented in Africa, the opposition says
• The full judgement will be published within 21 days

The BBC's Roderick MaCleod filmed these opposition supporters in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, celebrating the court ruling annulling the presidential election:

The BBC's Ferdinand Omondi has sent more video from the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in western Kenya.

You can see large crowds gathering on the city's main streets:

Parts of Kisumu saw confrontations between police and opposition supporters immediately following last month's election when results showed that President Uhuru Kenyatta was in the lead.

The election result has now been annulled.

Our African security correspondent notes:

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga has described the Supreme Court's annulment of last month's presidential election result as a "very historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension the people of the continent of Africa".

He called it a precedent-setting ruling, saying it had never happened before in Africa.

Image source, KTN