Kenyan Election: Incumbent Declared Victorious

by jordan | December 30, 2007 at 09:54 am | 393 views | add comment

Pre-election violence wracks Kenya - 07 Dec 07

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UPDATE: Violent protests have broken out in response to the election results.

UPDATE: Incumbent President Mwai Kibaki has been declared the winner amid accusations of voter fraud following a harrowing and violent election process.

Full election results, via KBC

[q
url="http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnBAN054106.html"]President
Mwai Kibaki has beaten opposition leader Raila Odinga by a narrow
margin to win re-election in Kenya's closest ever vote, the head of the
Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) said on Sunday.

"The commission therefore declares Honourable Mwai Kibaki as the
winner," ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu told a small group of reporters at
the election tally centre.[/q]

This is a follow-up on Obi-Akpere's earlier coverage...

Kenyans waited for the result of their closest-ever presidential election on Sunday, fearing more unrest after a chaotic vote count marred by widespread ethnic violence over accusations of rigging.

Several people were killed in tribal disturbances on Saturday across the East African nation, usually seen as an island of relative stability in a volatile region.

The latest results released on Saturday showed President Mwai Kibaki (76) taking the lead, infuriating supporters of opposition challenger Raila Odinga, who led in early tallies and in most opinion polls in the run-up to Thursday's election.

[q
url="http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=2937"]Things
were not helped with the flurry of irresponsible txt messages flying
from phone to phone. One alleged that PNU bigwigs (Kibaki’s party) had
mobilized Administration Police across the city with orders to torch
slums, another one alleged that ODM (Odinga’s party) had bussed it
battle harden troops from South Sudan ready to cause chaos across
Nairobi. And on and on it went. Strangely with everyone assured that
“their side” had made contingency plans for violence everyone was
slightly reassured. Now I know what it must have felt like at the
height of the cold war when both sides had the ability to completely
destroy each other so no one made a move. A weird illusion of peace as
violence is balanced.[/q]