Mwai Kibaki Wins Kenya’s Closely Fought Presidential Poll

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) late on Sunday declared outgoing President Mwai Kibaki winner of the closely fought presidential elections held on Thursday, APA learns here.

The announcement came despite claims by opposition leader Raila Odinga that he is the winner, accusing Mr Kibaki of electoral fraud and calling for a full re-assessment of the results.

Mr Odinga had led the polls since vote the counting began, but saw his advantage evaporate as later votes were counted.

The vote counting was delayed, sparking violence in which at least 10 people were reported to have been killed in disturbances mainly in the Nairobi slums.

According to the latest ECK results, Mr Kibaki won with 4, 584,721 votes, beating Mr Odinga by more than 230,000 votes, who had 4.352,993 votes.

Kalonzo Musyoka, another presidential contender, got 879,903 votes. The declaration of the final results was delayed, following chaotic scenes at the commission’s headquarters in the capital, Nairobi.

Just minutes after Mr Samuel Kivuitu, the ECK chairman began reading the results, an opposition member approached the counting center shouting and accusing the ECK of fraud.

Pandemonium then broke out, as other members of Mr Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement got to their feet and joined in the heckling of the ECK chairman.

Mr Kivuitu had to be led away from the building by police, only to return later and declare Mr Kibaki as the winner of the elections. Later addressing both the international and local media, Mr. Odinga claimed that the government had rigged in favor of Kibaki.

Odinga said that the votes tallied in six constituencies from the Eastern and Coastal regions were not corresponding with the national results released by the ECK, with those announced by ECK being more than those at the mentioned areas.

Odinga alleged that the elections were being doctored at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi.

Odinga later paraded a returning officer who admitted being part of the conspiracy that was doctoring the results at the counting centre where all the elections results were trickling in from other parts of the country.

“These are fraudulent results, we have the evidence to prove this, and ECK will be judged harshly by history”, said Odinga.

Odinga insisted that he had won the elections leading with 4.2 million votes and Kibaki trailing with 3.7 million votes.

However as all this was going on, drama further ensued as journalists were thrown out of the Kenyatta International Conference Center where the counting center is located, while armed men immediately cordoned off the building.

Source African Press Agency

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