Kenya's two main opposition leaders demanded a re-run of the presidential election as partial results yesterday showed President Daniel arap Moi (73) in an unassailable lead.
With Mr Moi poised to return to office and amid signs he wanted to be sworn in today or tomorrow, his strongest challengers said police intelligence agents and the ruling KANU party had rigged the vote on December 29th and 30th.
"We categorically reject the provisional results of the presidential elections," Mr Raila Odinga told a joint news conference with a fellow presidential candidate, Mr Mwai Kibaki. "We therefore demand that the presidential election be repeated within 21 days," they said. Their demand kept political tension high.
The capital, Nairobi, remained calm as counting continued but there were reports of ethnic unrest in Kisumu, the pro-opposition capital of Nyanza Province, in the west. Anger among the dominant Luo tribe turned to violence on Tuesday against the minority Kisii, whom they accused of voting for Mr Moi. A fragile peace was restored by yesterday.
The Electoral Commission, condemned almost universally for bungling the polls, issued its first official partial results yesterday showing Mr Moi well ahead of his main rival, Mr Kibaki.
In a mid-afternoon statement, the commission said Mr Moi had 1,538,116 votes and Mr Kibaki 1,276,096 in results from 126 of Kenya's 210 constituencies.
The trend was confirmed by a larger number of unofficial results, issued by the state broadcaster KBC and collated by Reuters, which firmly indicated that Mr Moi would not only finish top but also obtain the required 25 per cent of the vote in at least five provinces.
For parliament, all results showed Mr Moi's ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) was headed for its slimmest majority since independence from Britain in 1963.
"Now that the will of the people has been expressed through the ballot, all those concerned should accepted the verdict of the people," Vice-President George Saitoti said.
The government said on Thursday it would deal "swiftly and firmly" with those who incited Kenyans to reject the result.
"It's been a disaster," said 20year-old Francis Mbweri, a minibus fare collector, summing up the sentiments of many in Nairobi. "It's not been free and fair, and the people who are going to suffer are us."
Editorial comment: page 13