Violence threatens Kenya over election results

December 30, 2007 (NAIROBI) — Kenyans waited on edge 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 grabbing a 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.

Odinga’s political allies, accusing the government of a plot to rig the result, tried to shout down the head of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) as he read out the figures that gave Kibaki a lead of roughly 120,000 votes.

Amid the confusion, the exasperated chairman then announced only an earlier official tally giving Odinga a 38,000 vote lead.

“We are Kenyans, not beasts!” commented electoral commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu.

The commission then abruptly stopped reporting results for the night, leaving Kenya’s 36 million people in suspense to await the result of the closest of four multi-party elections since independence from Britain in 1963.

Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) both claimed victory and the leadership of the region’s biggest economy for the next five years.

TRIBAL ANTAGONISM

Although Kenya’s 42 ethnic groups generally get along, Odinga’s big Luo tribe and Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, the country’s largest, have a four-decade history of political antagonism.

Up to six people died in a violence following what foreign observers had praised as a largely peaceful voting exercise.

Odinga, the wealthy son of Kenya’s first vice president who commands almost god-like adulation among Luos, stayed silent as rioting and outright looting erupted in Kisumu. Critics accuse Odinga of stoking street violence when he doesn’t get his way.

Police in Kisumu had been ordered not to use force to quell unrest. Dozens of people took advantage to loot shops, some owned by Kikuyus but also by Kenyans of Indian origin, many of whom took sanctuary in a Hindu temple.

“Even the police are looting,” said a government security source on condition of anonymity.

Government officials privately said they had been contemplating a curfew that would allow soldiers to patrol at night, but Kenyans needed no persuasion to stay indoors, leaving the streets all but empty and businesses shuttered.

If Odinga wins, analysts say he will have to enlist Kikuyu support to allay fears that he has not left his communist past behind, and ensure a peaceful handover.

Kibaki would be faced with an opposition parliament if he returns, but would still command enormous power as president thanks to constitutional changes by his two predecessors that give the executive near-total government control.

(Reuters)