KENYA: Kenyans on edge for results of tight election

Record ID: 360695

  • Title: KENYA: Kenyans on edge for results of tight election
  • Date: 30th December 2007
  • Summary: NEWSPAPER HEADLINES READING 'STANDOFF' AND 'IN THE HANDS OF THE ECK'
  • Embargoed: 14th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3LXCEZNBZQ7AVWIUYUS6YINBU
  • Story Text: Kenyans are on edge for results, after the electoral commission halted the count overnight of polls that have been mired by chaos and claims of rigging.
    Kenyans waited for the result of their closest ever presidential election on Sunday (December 30), fearing more unrest after a chaotic vote count marred by widespread ethnic violence over accusations of rigging.
    Nairobi's streets were still a far cry from the usual bustle of the country's economic hub, even for a Sunday.
    Violence across the east African nation killed at least six people on Saturday, local media said, two days after polls that were initially praised by foreign observers and billed by some as a model for elections on the continent.
    Latest results released on Saturday showed President Mwai Kibaki, 76, taking the lead, infuriating supporters of opposition challenger Raila Odinga, who led in earlier tallies and most pre-vote opinion polls.
    Results from more than a dozen constituencies were still missing after returning officers disappeared with the paperwork, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) said, before halting its briefings for the night.

    "Whatever the figures they have, Kenya is at a crisis, we are at a crossroad: we voted and we stood by what we did, we want what we did right.
    Let us not go the Ukraine way, lets not go the Sierra Leone way or the Liberia way, where we are going to be put into chaos for no good reason. People of Kenya spoke, they know who they wanted and that is why they are complaining," said Roy Ogolla, a Nairobi resident.
    Envoys, foreign monitors and local media called for calm.
    ECK chairman, Samuel Kivuitu admitted there had been some problems including a reported 115 percent voter turnout in one constituency and the disappearance of some ECK officers.
    Both sides had claimed victory on Saturday in Kenya's closest-fought election in its four decades of independence.
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