Millions of Kenyans waited in the muggy darkness for the polls to open and for a chance to scratch their X’s in a presidential election that is predicted to be the tightest race in the country’s history — and perhaps the greatest test yet of Kenya’s young, multiparty democracy.
The contest pits the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, a man who has a reputation as a courtly gentleman and economics whiz but also as a tribal politician, against Raila Odinga, a rich, flamboyant businessman who rides around in a bright red $100,000 Hummer and is running as a champion of the poor.
The polling places were packed with young women carrying babies on their backs, students chatting on cellphones, wrinkled old men teetering on canes and muscled young men smelling as if they had just tumbled out of a bar. Security was tight. Truckloads of helmeted soldiers prowled the slums. Policemen swung canes to beat back throngs of voters trying to squeeze into voting booths.
“We want change!” yelled Abdi Mubarak, who works in a mosque and who said he voted for Mr. Odinga.
That change may come. Though official results are not expected to be released until Friday, most polls in the past several months forecast that Mr. Odinga would win the popular vote, and the heavy turnout on Thursday was said to work in his favor. It seems that he has tapped into frustrations percolating for some time in Kenya, which enjoys one of the strongest and most stable economies in Africa but suffers from deep tribal divisions. Mr. Odinga has built a coalition of the Luo, the Luhya, the Masai, the Somali and many other tribes who say they feel that the Kikuyu, Kenya’s biggest tribe, accounting for a quarter of the population, has been politically dominant for too long.
On Thursday, this played out behind the cardboard booths where voters hunched over their ballots. Of more than a dozen people interviewed, not one crossed tribal lines when voting. Mr. Odinga, 62, is a Luo. Mr. Kibaki, 76, is a Kikuyu. And the third notable politician in the presidential race, Kalonzo Musyoka, 54, is a Kamba.
“I’m for the president,” said David Ndagwa, a stocky vendor of vegetables who said he was a Kikuyu. “He’s brought progress.”
Tribes aside, there are other issues in this race. Mr. Odinga wants to devolve power from the center of the country and grant Kenya’s rural areas more autonomy. Mr. Kibaki has been running strong on education and has already delivered on his promise of free primary school education for all Kenyans. Mr. Musyoka is a former foreign minister and has said he is the one to expand Kenya’s links to the wider world. He has run a distant third in polls.
However, Kenyan law necessitates that to become president, a candidate must win a seat in Parliament and secure at least 25 percent of the votes in five out of eight of the country’s provinces. This electoral fine print may mean that even if there is a clear winner in the popular vote, there could be a runoff.
The president’s party has been trying to block Mr. Odinga from winning the presidency by backing candidates in Mr. Odinga’s parliamentary district, which includes Kibera, a sprawling shantytown on the outskirts of Nairobi that is known as Africa’s largest slum. At the same time, Mr. Kibaki’s support is concentrated in a few provinces, and there is a real chance he may not clear the five-out-of-eight hurdle. Either situation could produce an inconclusive election result and turbulence.
There are more than 14 million registered voters in Kenya and election officials said the turnout on Thursday seemed substantially higher than the 57 percent in the last presidential race, in 2002. Voters on Thursday also chose members of Parliament and local government officials.
There were some problems, though. Many polling places did not open on time and as a result voters waited in line for hours — without moving. Many people also complained that voter lists were incomplete. Mr. Odinga said that even he could not find his name on the roster in Kibera when he tried to vote in the morning. But after he complained to election officials, he was allowed to cast a vote, along with others who produced valid identification. Mr. Odinga stepped from the voting booth into a sea of cheering fans.
Election observers said that although many polling places were a bit chaotic, the vote seemed to be free and fair.
“We haven’t seen any corruption,” said Rhoda Mackenzi, a Kenyan observer. “And we’ve been looking, for sure.”
Michael E. Ranneberger, the American ambassador to Kenya, seemed pleased.
“The process has not been without its difficulties,” he said, “but over all, when you look at various factors, it has gone well.”
Source: WashingtonPost