Reports of widespread vote-rigging have marred the run-up to today's general election in Kenya. President Danielarap Moi's Kanu party stands accused of having bought both votes and voter's registration cards.
The cards, which must be shown at the voting booth, have been bought for 500 shillings (£5) or less to neutralise votes in opposition areas. People attending political rallies have been given handouts of 50 to 100 shillings to vote for Kanu and more inducements are expected to be offered today.
"The process is going ahead but there have been many inadequacies so far," says Mr Cleophas Torori, an election observer with a non-governmental organisation, the Institute for Education in Democracy. "There have been cases of gerrymandering of constituencies and young people being unable to register to vote. We've also had reports of vote buying and of voters' cards being bought up."
President Moi (73), the so-called Last Big Man of Africa, is expected to be re-elected to office and Kanu is expected to dominate the parliamentary poll. The former school teacher, in power for 19 years, is seeking a fifth and final term in office.
Although no comprehensive survey data is available, it seems he will come out on top. One re cent poll conducted by the institute gives him slightly more than 40 per cent of the votes.
Of the 14 candidates opposing President Moi, four stand out: the former vice-president, Mr Mwai Kibaki of the Democratic Party, the Cambridge-educated Mr Mic hael Wamalwa of Ford-Kenya, Mr Raila Odinga of the National Democratic Party and Ms Charity Ngilu of the Social Democratic Party, Kenya's first female presidential aspirant. The illegal buying of voters' cards is reported to have been most widespread in Eastern Province where Ms Ngilu has a strong following. She is the most dyna mic candidate to have emerged so far. She might be hopelessly unpunctual - she left 4,000 supporters waiting in vain for what was supposed to be her final rally in the capital on Saturday - but she has introduced a welcome freshness into the campaign.
President Moi needs at least a quarter of the votes cast in five out of eight of the country's provinces. If he fails to reach the target, he could be forced into a risky second-round run-off. However, a British election analyst who made extremely accurate predictions in Kenya's first multi-party elections in 1992 estimates he will take at least five provinces.
After years of corruption, economic mismanagement and decline in public services, many Kenyans want change. They would have been assured of a new direction if the main opposition parties could have agreed on a single presidential candidate but, after incessant faction-fighting, the opposition is weak and divided.
Just as it was gaining strength in a campaign for democratic re forms earlier this year, the government approved the reforms, which left the opposition floundering. Tribalism is at the bottom of the opposition's inability to form a common front. While some African countries like Tanzania and Uganda have moved towards greater unity, Kenya has continued to fragment along tribal lines.
Many accuse President Moi of having fostered the divisions but, in truth, the opposition is just as incapable of overcoming ethnic prejudice and rivalry.
Most of the main presidential candidates have been subjected to harassment at the hands of Kanu thugs but, after politically inspired violence in the capital, Nairobi, and on the coast during the summer, the campaign has been relatively quiet.
"We can't yet rule out intimidation and violence on polling day", said Mr Torori, who is one of 27,000 local election observers.
Many fear that the worst unrest could come after the elections.