'We're ready for killings'
2007-12-31 10:36
Nairobi - Police fired tear gas into Nairobi's sprawling slum and the opposition planned more protests on Monday as President Mwai Kibaki began a second term after an election marred by allegations that he stole the vote.
Kibaki, 76, was sworn in almost immediately after the results were announced on Sunday. Within minutes, the slums - home to tens of thousands of opposition supporters - exploded into fresh violence.
"We have been rigged out, we are not going to accept defeat," 24-year-old James Onyango, who lives in the Kibera shantytown, said on Monday. "We are ready to die and we're ready for serious killings."
Hundreds of people tried to leave Kibera to march, but police used teargas to keep them back.
Kenyan cops ban event
Raila Odinga, the firebrand opposition candidate who had been leading early results and public opinion polls, rejected the results and was planning a ceremony to be declared "the people's president" later on Monday. Police banned the event.
The bloodshed was a stunning turn of events in one of the most developed countries in Africa, with a booming tourism industry and one of the continent's highest growth rates.
Many observers saw the campaign as the greatest test yet of this young, multiparty democracy and expressed great disappointment as the process descended into chaos.
Odinga said the dispute could trigger a political crisis and compared the country to Ivory Coast - the once stable West African nation, where a 2002 coup sparked a civil war.
Candidate run away with ballot papers
Elections chief Samuel Kivuitu, who read the results on live television after other media were expelled from the main vote headquarters on Sunday, said Kibaki beat Odinga by 231 728 votes in the closest race in Kenya's history.
"This means Honorable Mwai Kibaki is the winner," said Kivuitu, soon after he was escorted from the counting centre under armed guard. Hecklers had stopped his announcement with shouts of "This is not a police state!" and "Justice!"
But even Kivuitu had acknowledged problems with the count, including a constituency, where voter turnout added up to 115% and another, where a candidate ran away with ballot papers.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the chief European Union election monitor, said the Electoral Commission of Kenya "has not succeeded in establishing the credibility of the tallying process to the satisfaction of all parties and candidates".
Kibaki was sworn in almost immediately after the results were announced, standing with his hand on the Bible in a serene ceremony at State House as his wife Lucy and dignitaries looked on.
Kibaki said: "We have done our nation proud and set a good example for the rest of the continent. With the general election now behind us, it is time for healing and reconciliation among all Kenyans."
But even some people who voted for Kibaki had suspicions.
- AP