Kenya: Early Poll Successes for Opposition as Vote Count Continues

28 December 2002
allAfrica.com
By Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

Nairobi — Kenyans woke up early Saturday to news that the main opposition National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) was scoring early leads as election results trickled in from all over the country. There were also unconfirmed reports of shock defeats for some veteran heavyweight politicians.

Presidential, parliamentary and civic elections took place Friday, marking an end to 24 years of President Daniel arap Moi, 78, who is barred by the constitution from serving a third five-year term.

Five men contested the presidential race. Whoever replaces Moi must win nationally and secure a parliamentary seat as well as at least a quarter of votes cast in at least five of Kenya’s eight provinces.

James Aggrey Orengo, standing as the presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party (SDP), is reported to have failed to retain his parliamentary seat. If confirmed, this would automatically disqualify him from becoming Kenya’s new president, although he was considered to have only an outside chance of victory.

The two front runners for Kenya’s powerful presidency are Narc’s Mwai Kibaki, 71, and Uhuru Kenyatta, 41, the candidate of Moi’s governing Kenya African National Union (Kanu).

Early returns Saturday put Kibaki and Narc ahead, with unofficial figures published by the Institute for Education in Democracy, a local NGO, giving Kibaki 72 percent of the presidential vote compared with 25 percent for Kanu’s Kenyatta.

By 09h00 Saturday, with about one percent of the presidential election results in, Kibaki continued his lead with 80 percent versus Kenyatta’s 18 per cent.

But Kenyans have been warned against drawing definitive conclusions from early results in a country with 10.5 million registered voters.

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) must confirm all results and ECK says the final outcome of the presidential poll might not be declared until 1 January.

Meanwhile media organisations and others are calculating their own running totals based on reports from electoral officials in the country’s 210 constituencies.

Another reported casualty in Friday’s poll, and a major blow to Kanu, was Kenya’s outgoing vice-president, and party stalwart, Musalia Mudavadi. Unconfirmed reports said Mudavadi appeared to have lost his seat in Sabatia constituency in western Kenya to an opposition Narc challenger. "It looks certain that the vice-president is out, we will issue a tally shortly," an electoral official in his parliamentary constituency told Reuters.

Unlike previous elections in 1992 and 1997, the run-up to the 2002 poll was not marked by violence and politically-related deaths. But there was confusion at some polling stations on Friday, with disappointed voters unable to cast their ballot because their names were not on the electoral register.

Narc leaders have complained that hundreds, perhaps thousands of its supporters were disenfranchised.

Former Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, who is heading the Carter Centre election observer team in Kenya, told allAfrica.com Friday that he was happy to see Kenya continuing on the road of multiparty democracy. Asked if he viewed the poll as free and fair, Kaunda promised: "If the elections in Kenya are free, fair and transparent, we will say it. If they are not we will also say it."

Kaunda said Moi's decision to step down democratically was a good example for the rest of Africa. The Kenyan leader is one of the longest-serving presidents on the continent.

Expressing a desire for change, and capitalising on what is widely considered as the governing Kanu party's failures after almost 40 years in power, many Kenyans went to the polls knowing that they were seeing the end of an era with the departure of Moi.

As Moi bows out, they have the opportunity to vote in a 'fresh face' - be it the youthful Kenyatta, or the veteran Kibaki who was Moi’s vice-president for ten years, between 1978 and 1988. Despite his association with Kanu and Moi, Kibaki, who set up his own party in the early 1990, is seen as the man who can change the complexion of politics in Kenya.

Kenyatta and Kibaki have both pledged to revive the battered economy and fight to end corruption. Narc's presidential candidate has emphasised his long experience in government, as finance minister. Kanu’s contender, 30 years Kibaki’s junior, has played up his comparative youth, highlighting the possibility of a new beginning for Kenya and a new generation of leaders with fresh ideas.

Pundits, and Narc supporters have tipped Kibaki to overturn Kanu’s stranglehold on power, marking a test of Kenyan democracy after a long period of one-party rule after independence from Britain in 1963.

This will be the first time a constitutionally elected president has bowed out and handed over power to another duly chosen president in Kenya, home to 30 million people. Moi took over power in 1978 on the death of Kenya’s independence leader, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the father of Uhuru, now seeking in his turn to win the presidency.

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