Kenyan presidential hopeful Raila Odinga held a tiny lead of 38,000 votes over incumbent Mwai Kibaki late Saturday in nail-biting polls that have been marred by rioting and violence in the relatively peaceful East African nation, according to dpa. The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) gave Odinga 3.88 million ballots and Kibaki 3.84 million with 189 constituencies out of 210 counted, but a scuffle in the ECK media room forced the commissioner to stop reading the tally. Odinga had a 1-million-vote lead over his opponent on Friday. Earlier, both candidates declared victory in Thursday's vote, using their own counts. The opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) came out first with its pronouncement, saying Odinga, 62, trounced Kibaki by 500,000 votes. Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) quickly responded, claiming victory with a 300,000-vote margin. "Kangaroo results given by any Tom, Dick or Harry deserve every contempt," a PNU spokesman said. The delay in the announcement of president sparked violence and allegations of rigging, as ethnic tensions flared between Odinga's Luo supporters and men from the Kikuyu tribe backing the PNU, with riot police on guard in shantytowns around the city. Men wielding machetes squared off face-to-face in Kibera, an Odinga stronghold and East Africa's largest slum, ready to pounce on PNU supporters as a line of police stood between them, firing in the air in an attempt to break up the crowd. Police fired teargas on protesters who flung stones and burned tyres, lambasting the delayed announcement of results. "They are trying to steal the vote, that's why they keep postponing. If the results are not announced soon, we will march on the counting centre," said Abdallah Juma, 19, lingering around in Kibera after the crowd of angry men was dispersed. Houses in the slum were looted and torched as passions mounted ahead of the anticipated announcement of results Sunday morning. Bonfires were lit on the streets of Kisumu in western Kenya, Odinga's turf. At least one person was killed and at least 12 were in hospital after the protests, local television station NTV reported. The race had shaped up to be Kenya's closest and observers warned the stage was set for violence, with the delay of results only adding to the concerns. "This delay is unacceptable. Tensions are high and the ECK must stand questioned about it," said Maina Kiai, the chair of the state- funded but independent Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Both leading parties have chided the ECK for dragging out the counting process and called for immediate results. The European Union voiced concern over the delay and, while it did not have concrete evidence of rigging, said there were "question marks." The tight race that has seen some 20 members of Kibaki's cabinet ousted by a disaffected electorate looking for change from an administration wracked by accusations of graft and laziness. High-profile personalities like Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai and Vice President Moody Awori also lost their seats in parliamentary elections. Kibaki, 76, is seeking a second term after creating a regional economic powerhouse from the ruins of the kleptocratic regime of former president Daniel arap Moi, but critics charged he was unable to purge graft from his government. Odinga, a flamboyant leader and the son of a leftist independence hero, has vowed to continue liberalizing the economy, and Kenyans voting for him have said they are choosing a change from the endemic corruption that plagues the country. The ECK praised a large voter turnout of between 60 and 80 per cent out of the 14 million registered voters in Thursday's polls, the closest since the country gained independence from Britain in 1963. If Odinga wins, and Kibaki relinquishes power, Kenya would be one of the few on the continent to unseat an incumbent at the ballot box.
