Nairobi — As Kenyans settled down to Christmas lunch and church services, the national holiday gave them a little respite to reflect on "the dawn of a new era," as one newspaper put it. It was also the opportunity to consider which candidates to select, after weeks of relentless campaigning by presidential, parliamentary and civic election candidates, ahead of the countrys landmark polls on Friday.
Last minute campaigning was still dominated by Kenya's main presidential hopefuls, who concentrated their efforts on the capital, Nairobi on Tuesday, in a bid to woo potential voters still making up their minds.
Uhuru Kenyatta, 42, candidate of the governing Kenya African National Union (Kanu) party who has already criss-crossed the country in his campaign, made a colourful whistle-stop tour of Nairobi. The son of Kenyas revered independence leader, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, swept through the poor, urban areas and slums of the city, including the sprawling shantytown of Kibera.
Trading in his now signature campaign helicopters for an open air truck, plastered with his own image, the youthful Kenyatta drove through Nairobi hammering home his vision for Kenya and message of a fresh start. He continued to distance himself from the discredited older generation of politicians, including the man who handpicked him as successor, the outgoing President Daniel arap Moi, 78.
Moi, in power for almost the last quarter century, is constitutionally barred from seeking another five-year presidential term. He has promised to retire gracefully, leaving his successor to govern without interference, while he focuses on regional conflict resolution and helping children, especially HIV/Aids orphans, after the creation of his proposed Moi Foundation.
Perhaps reflecting his age - and still recovering from broken limbs sustained in a motor accident while campaigning in early December - Kenyattas main opposition rival, Mwai Kibaki, 71, marked Christmas Eve at home with a more sedate family carol singing service.
Kibaki is the presidential candidate of the leading opposition National Rainbow Coalition (Narc). He flew back to Nairobi from London, wheelchair-bound, to a spirited and rapturous welcome from his supporters on 14 December, after hospital treatment in Britain.
Both leading presidential contenders hail from Kenyas dominant Kikuyu tribe and both Kibaki and Kenyatta have campaigned on the ticket of change, leaving the other three presidential candidates trailing way behind. Kenyattas campaign mantra has echoed Kibakis that he will end graft and greed and fight the moral woes assailing Kenya.
Kibaki, Mois former vice-president and finance minister, until he quit Kanu and set up his own party in the early 1990s, is considered a seasoned politician and thought by many to be the frontrunner in the presidential race, because of his experience and poise and his ability to unite the opposition.
But Kibakis past association with the old guard of Kenyan leaders - who are perceived to have ruined the country and the economy and allowed corruption to run riot - lingers, despite his repeated campaign pledges that he is a man of integrity who will revive the moral, social and economic fibre of Kenya.
The Narc opposition alliance leadership is made up largely of former Kanu ministers and other senior officials who defected from Mois government and party in huge numbers, angry that Kenyatta was named as the governing partys presidential candidate.
This provoked scepticism among some Kenyans who have seen Narc as a wolf in sheeps clothing. It has also prompted taunts from Kenyatta, repeated Wednesday, that the opposition is made up of "yesterdays men" and the "same old recycled crowd," tainted by years of mismanagement and endemic corruption.
"Most are driven by self-interest and have demonstrated their lack of loyalty to any party or policies," Kenyatta told journalists, adding: "They had the opportunity to make a difference, but have failed. Surely it is unthinkable that they are able to bring about any real change."
Stressing his youth and new ideas - despite representing Kanu, the party that has dominated Kenyan politics for the 39 years since independence - Kenyatta upstaged Kibaki on Christmas Day and held a news conference. He used the occasion to exchange seasonal greetings, drive home his campaign slogan of change with Uhuru and lambast the opposition.
The Kanu candidate criticised appeals by Narc for mass protests if the opposition was robbed of electoral victory on December 27. "Recent statements issued by Narc leaders are calculated to create alarm, intimidate Kenyans and cause civil unrest," said Kenyatta. He was referring to remarks by one of the oppositions chief strategists, Raila Odinga, that Narc supporters would storm State House and seize power if they concluded that Fridays election had been rigged by the government.
Toning down Odingas outspoken rally call, and claiming that he was certain of winning, Kibaki nonetheless argued that "no-one in his right mind will deny Kenyans their choice of government, as they will rise to defend their rights."
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But the opposition candidate admitted that there was no evidence to date that Kanu was plotting wholesale election fraud, a feature of the two previous polls under Moi, since the return to multiparty elections in 1992.
The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) has fined both a Kanu and Narc candidate, saying their supporters incited violence. ECK also rebuked two Kanu ministers for alleged campaign intimidation. The police weighed in this week with warnings to politicians to control their followers during the vote.
But the commission chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, said campaigning in 2002 generally had been peaceful, despite isolated incidents and some deaths. "We do not have the kind of violence we witnessed in previous elections," said Kivuitu, a reference to tribal clashes that marred the run-up to the 1992 and 1997 polls, in which up to 2000 people were killed.
But on the eve of the elections in Kenya it seems the elements, rather than man-made problems, may work against the organisers. Heavy rains sweeping through central Kenya including Nairobi, and forecasts of more downpours, threaten to disrupt the polls. Voting had to be extended by a day during the 1997 elections because of the wet weather.
