Polls Close in Kenya's Tight Race

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 27, 2007 — -- As the polls closed on the most tightly contested presidential race in Kenya's history, the nation's citizens held their collective breath over the results amid allegations of vote rigging and incompetence by the commission running the elections.

There are reports that many of the 14 million Kenyans throughout the nation who lined up to vote started in the middle of the night.

In Kibera, Kenya's largest slum and one of the poorest areas in Africa, many voters said they wanted to vote early and were worried about allegations of vote rigging and delays in opening the polls. Voter Crispin Owuro said he had been at the polling station since 3 a.m., and four hours later the line had still not moved.

But he said that the delays would not deter him or the thousands of others lined up.

"This election is important because you need to choose someone who is going to represent you," said Owuro. "We want to dismiss people [who] cannot really run a government and put people in who can run a government."

Although there have been no reported incidents of serious violence so far, allegations of fraud have been rampant -- the most serious coming from lead presidential challenger Raila Odinga, who at first was not able to vote in Kibera, home to his constituency, because his name was not on the voter registry. It was discovered that the registry was missing names beginning with the letters O and R, excluding many of the thousands of people who had lined up to vote.

In a press conference with local media, Odinga called the action "deliberate" and accused the government of purposefully excluding voters favorable to him, a charge the Election Commission of Kenya denies. The commission then printed correct registries. Odinga returned to Kibera an hour later to vote. But the mistake could mean that polls must stay open for several hours after the official closing time.

Odinga, 62, a former political prisoner, has been leading incumbent President Mwai Kibaki in opinion polls for weeks. But the gap narrowed right before the election, making this the closest campaign in Kenya's history since independence 43 years ago.