Kenyans wait for poll results
2007-12-30 10:30
Nairobi - Kenyans kept vigil by radios and televisions Sunday waiting for results of the country's closest-ever presidential election, after a slow and chaotic vote count sparked widespread violence and rigging fears.
Several people were killed on Saturday across the country as thousands burned down homes and clashed using sticks and machetes, tainting a vote that initially was seen as a beacon of hope for democracy in Africa.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga clung onto his razor thin lead by 38 000 votes, but the electoral commission suspended announcing results on Saturday night, promising to look into allegations of fraud.
"If they don't announce results in two hours we are going to burn this place down!" shouted 23-year-old John Odhiambo as youths armed with metal rods looted a flaming market behind him in Kenya's biggest slum.
Violence claims three lives
Police said violence claimed at least three lives across Kenya on Saturday, as supporters of the rival candidates fought with police and each other. Thursday's vote pitted President Mwai Kibaki against flamboyant challenger Odinga in the country's most closely fought election since independence from Britain in 1963.
If Kibaki loses, he will be Kenya's first sitting president ousted at the ballot box.
On Saturday, both parties announced they had won the election but the electoral commission said counting was not finished. Despite pleas from both parties to announce results quickly, chairman Samuel Kivuitu said he would suspend announcing results until the morning to investigate any allegations of fraud.
Already frustrated by delays, slum dwellers quickly latched onto wild rumours of tit-for-tat ethnic killings and young men hacked apart wooden fence posts to use as weapons. In the Luo section of the slums, staggering silhouettes emerged from clouds of tear gas mixed with the acrid smoke from burning tires.
Kibaki is a Kikuyu, while Odinga is a Luo.
Vigilante mobs
Across the railroad tracks in the Kikuyu areas, vigilante mobs stalked the alleys armed with axes and machetes. A roar of anger went up at each new plume of black smoke, but the gangs were wary of venturing too far from their home turf.
As the violence spread to several other cities and residents of the capital boarded up their shops, Police Commissioner Hussein Ali appealed for calm, insisting, "There cannot be democracy where people think they can get recourse through hooliganism."
"Holding an election does not mean that the law has been suspended."
Hundreds of people died in election-related clashes in months leading up to the election, and several diplomats expressed concern that a narrow victory on either side could lead to rioting.
But most observers said the vote itself appeared generally orderly, with no major disruptions reported, although they declined to issue their final reports until the commission announced a winner.
- AP