Raila Odinga leads
Dec 29, 2007
NAIROBI, Friday — Opposition candidate Raila Odinga is leading in the race to govern Kenya in the next five years, according to early tallies by the Kenyan media.
NAIROBI, Friday — Opposition candidate Raila Odinga is leading in the race to govern Kenya in the next five years, according to early tallies by the Kenyan media.
Partial results from three main television stations all gave opposition challenger Raila Odinga, the son of a nationalist hero, a strong lead over his former ally, President Mwai Kibaki.
The unofficial results by the TV channels were compiled from tallies at counting centres. By early afternoon on Friday, with over 20% of the votes counted, the private channel KTN gave Odinga 1,862,573 votes to 1,179,271 for Kibaki.
Another independent television station, NTV, gave Odinga 62% of the votes, compared to 36% for Kibaki, by Friday 2:00 pm.
Were Odinga to win, this would make Kibaki the first of Kenya’s three sitting presidents to be ousted by the ballot box since independence.
The television station said various prominent figures were likely to lose their parliamentary seats, including the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and Vice-President Moody Awori, as well as the ministers of health, roads, information and foreign affairs.
Another big name, Kamlesh Pattni, a tycoon accused of being the architect of the Goldenberg corruption scandal that nearly ruined Kenya’s economy, also looked set to lose his bid to win a Nairobi seat.
Former President Daniel Arap Moi, who campaigned for Kibaki, might come out as the biggest loser. His two sons did not make it into parliament and his home turf, the Rift Valley, has fallen to Odinga.
According to provisional results, Odinga got 78% of the votes in Moi’s province, while Kibaki got 21%. The Rift Valley was considered a decisive block, with the highest number of registered voters – 3.4 million.
A total of about 14 million Kenyans were eligible to vote, although turnout is expected to have been between eight and 10 million.
As official counts slowly reached a Nairobi conference centre ringed by armed guards, the Electoral Commission of Kenya said the process could stretch into Saturday.
“There’s no excuse for our field officers not to have sent us results that were announced by the media two hours ago,†said Commissioner Jack Tumwa. “The country is getting restless.â€
Officials had earlier given the outcome from just two of Kenya’s 210 constituencies. One chose Odinga and the other picked the president, both by large majorities in a reflection of the country’s deeply entrenched Kenyan tribalism.
International observers said Thursday’s voting had gone smoothly, despite sporadic violence and allegations of rigging by both sides.
“The test for our democratic maturity is in the post-election period and how we conduct ourselves thereafter,†police boss Hussein Ali told a news conference.
“For the winners, we trust you will exercise magnanimity. For the losers ... you can try another time.â€
Diplomats say the poll was only the second truly democratic one in a nation that votes largely on ethnic and geographic lines and spent 39 years under single-party rule, broken only by Kibaki’s landslide victory in 2002.
Kibaki, 76, wants a second five-year term before retiring to his highland tea farm after a political career that has spanned Kenya’s post-independence history.
With a record of average economic growth of 5%, he has the support of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya’s largest and most economically powerful, but trailed narrowly in pre-vote polls.
Odinga, 62, wants to be the first in his Luo tribe to take the country’s top job.
That was the unrealised dream of his father, Kenya’s first vice-president Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, whose falling out with founding President Jomo Kenyatta seeded the Luo-Kikuyu rivalry.
Should he win, Odinga will have to bring on board Kikuyu support and allay fears among some in business circles that the East Germany-educated businessman is a radical.
The East African Standard reported that 14 ministers had lost their parliamentary seats. They include Musikari Kombo, Newton Kulundu, Kipruto Kirwa, Moses Akaranga, Simeon Nyachae, Njenga Karume, Raphael Tuju, David Mwiraria, Mohamud Abdi Mohammed, Morris Dzoro, Suleiman Shakombo, Mutahi Kagwe and Paul Sang.
Partial results from three main television stations all gave opposition challenger Raila Odinga, the son of a nationalist hero, a strong lead over his former ally, President Mwai Kibaki.
The unofficial results by the TV channels were compiled from tallies at counting centres. By early afternoon on Friday, with over 20% of the votes counted, the private channel KTN gave Odinga 1,862,573 votes to 1,179,271 for Kibaki.
Another independent television station, NTV, gave Odinga 62% of the votes, compared to 36% for Kibaki, by Friday 2:00 pm.
Were Odinga to win, this would make Kibaki the first of Kenya’s three sitting presidents to be ousted by the ballot box since independence.
The television station said various prominent figures were likely to lose their parliamentary seats, including the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and Vice-President Moody Awori, as well as the ministers of health, roads, information and foreign affairs.
Another big name, Kamlesh Pattni, a tycoon accused of being the architect of the Goldenberg corruption scandal that nearly ruined Kenya’s economy, also looked set to lose his bid to win a Nairobi seat.
Former President Daniel Arap Moi, who campaigned for Kibaki, might come out as the biggest loser. His two sons did not make it into parliament and his home turf, the Rift Valley, has fallen to Odinga.
According to provisional results, Odinga got 78% of the votes in Moi’s province, while Kibaki got 21%. The Rift Valley was considered a decisive block, with the highest number of registered voters – 3.4 million.
A total of about 14 million Kenyans were eligible to vote, although turnout is expected to have been between eight and 10 million.
As official counts slowly reached a Nairobi conference centre ringed by armed guards, the Electoral Commission of Kenya said the process could stretch into Saturday.
“There’s no excuse for our field officers not to have sent us results that were announced by the media two hours ago,†said Commissioner Jack Tumwa. “The country is getting restless.â€
Officials had earlier given the outcome from just two of Kenya’s 210 constituencies. One chose Odinga and the other picked the president, both by large majorities in a reflection of the country’s deeply entrenched Kenyan tribalism.
International observers said Thursday’s voting had gone smoothly, despite sporadic violence and allegations of rigging by both sides.
“The test for our democratic maturity is in the post-election period and how we conduct ourselves thereafter,†police boss Hussein Ali told a news conference.
“For the winners, we trust you will exercise magnanimity. For the losers ... you can try another time.â€
Diplomats say the poll was only the second truly democratic one in a nation that votes largely on ethnic and geographic lines and spent 39 years under single-party rule, broken only by Kibaki’s landslide victory in 2002.
Kibaki, 76, wants a second five-year term before retiring to his highland tea farm after a political career that has spanned Kenya’s post-independence history.
With a record of average economic growth of 5%, he has the support of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya’s largest and most economically powerful, but trailed narrowly in pre-vote polls.
Odinga, 62, wants to be the first in his Luo tribe to take the country’s top job.
That was the unrealised dream of his father, Kenya’s first vice-president Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, whose falling out with founding President Jomo Kenyatta seeded the Luo-Kikuyu rivalry.
Should he win, Odinga will have to bring on board Kikuyu support and allay fears among some in business circles that the East Germany-educated businessman is a radical.
The East African Standard reported that 14 ministers had lost their parliamentary seats. They include Musikari Kombo, Newton Kulundu, Kipruto Kirwa, Moses Akaranga, Simeon Nyachae, Njenga Karume, Raphael Tuju, David Mwiraria, Mohamud Abdi Mohammed, Morris Dzoro, Suleiman Shakombo, Mutahi Kagwe and Paul Sang.