KENYA: Uneasy calm as in Kisumu as Kenyans await outcome after tight presidential vote

Record ID: 362515

  • Title: KENYA: Uneasy calm as in Kisumu as Kenyans await outcome after tight presidential vote
  • Date: 6th March 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WATCHING THE TELEVISION
  • Embargoed: 21st March 2013 12:00
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  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6J44WO3L4OWIC1PY4PIH7V6MM
  • Story Text: Police patrolled the streets of the Western Kenya city of Kisumu as residents awaited the announcement of the final presidential results.
    Shops remained closed in the city that saw violence in 2007/2008 after President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner over Raila Odinga. Kisumu provides a massive vote base for Raila who is originally from there.
    Kenyan authorities hope to deliver the final outcome of a presidential vote on Wednesday, after partial results gave a lead to a politician wanted in The Hague over tribal violence after the last election over five years ago.
    Counting since Monday's vote has been slow, and a new electronic system has been plagued by hitches, leading to complaints by political parties and anxiety among voters fearful that a flawed process could lead to another violent dispute.
    Residents said the electoral commission should resort to manual counting.
    "What we are expecting the IEBC to do is to resort the manual and let them give us the provisional results so that we at least be somewhere and know where the country is, because at know the economy is at a standstill look at the business people are still uncertain of what is going on. The businesses are closed I visited an office here there are no people in the office so you know its bringing a lot of uncertainty over nothing." said Zachary Olwal, The tallying was stopped on Tuesday night after officials said the system had suffered some technical malfunction. Kenyans had been following the vote on television across the country.
    "Today was the last day for me now today was the last to see who is the winner, so today I must be out I must look at even if I will use the cold water for me not to sleep because again taday is the day that we are going the accurate thing that is going to happen, which means I am not going to sleep today." said Jack Omondi.
    Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, 51, has kept an early lead since results started trickling in after polls closed on Monday, but some strongholds for his rival Prime Minister Raila Odinga, 68, have yet to declare their results.
    The last election saw some 1,200 people killed in ethnic violence after outgoing president Mwai Kibaki was declared the victor over Odinga amid charges of voting fraud. This time, Monday's vote saw at least 15 people killed in pockets of violence but no repeat so far of unrest on such a large scale.
    But the biggest test of whether calm prevails will be whether the candidates and their supporters accept the outcome. The stakes are high for both candidates and a dispute over the fate of a sizable number of rejected ballots could rein in Kenyatta's early lead and raise the chances of an April runoff.
    The election commission has said it hopes to tally all the results on Wednesday, but has seven days from Monday's vote to declare the official outcome.
    "What is the reason that some countys their records are coming very early than the records from the stronghold of the Prime Minister. So there were tension because people did not want to sleep so somehow some of my friends went to Kondele if they were preparing if the post election was going to repeat itself, so some of us like me I didn't sleep and am not also going to sleep." said Steve Okello.
    Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto, are both wanted in The Hague on charges of unleashing death squads after the last vote in 2007. Both men deny the charges.
    The United States and other Western states, big donors that view Kenya as vital in the regional battle with militant Islam, have already indicated that a victory by Kenyatta would complicate diplomatic relations.
    Provisional results displayed by the election commission on Wednesday with just under 60 percent of polling stations still to report showed Kenyatta, son of Kenya's independence leader and one of Africa's richest men, leading with 53 percent, against 42 percent for veteran politician Odinga.
    But the numbers ignore more than 330,000 rejected votes counted so far, which the election commission says will now be included. Once factored in, Kenyatta's chances of securing more than 50 percent in the first round give him an outright win would be sharply eroded.
    He also suggested foreigners might have prompted the commission's change of heart, adding: "We are very concerned at the level of involvement of ambassadors and foreigners in canvassing for various positions around this hall."
    Odinga's camp has also questioned parts of the election process before, during and after the vote, hinting at the potential for legal challenges.
    After problems with the electronic system, the electoral commission said it would rely instead on results being delivered manually to a national tallying centre overnight.
    To try to prevent a repeat of the contested outcome that sparked the violence after the December 2007 vote, the new, broadly respected election commission is using more technology to prevent fraud, speed up counting and increase transparency. But the new system has come up short of expectations.
    Kenyans, who waited patiently in long lines, hope the vote will restore the nation's image as one of Africa's more stable democracies, damaged by the tribal blood-letting in 2007.
    Election officials said turnout was more than 70 percent of the 14.3 million eligible voters.
    Kenya is East Africa's biggest economy and, although led by authoritarian leaders accused of corruption for most of its half century of independence, has been spared the civil wars that devastated neighbours like Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.
    ENDS
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