Post date: Mar 09, 2013 12:51:42 AM
Provisional reports by Kenya's electoral commission show Uhuru Kenyatta winning the presidency, over rival Raila Odinga.
NAIROBI, KENYA (MARCH 9, 2013) (REUTERS) - The son of Kenya's founding president, Uhuru Kenyatta, won the country's presidential election with a slim margin of 50.03 percent of votes cst, figures announced and displayed by the election commission showed in the early hours of Saturday (March 9).
Kenyatta, who faces international charges of crimes against humanity, secured 6,173,433 votes out of a total of 12,338,667 ballots cast, indicating that he had secured the more than 50 percent of votes needed for a first round win.He secured the victory over his main rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who secured 43.3 percent of the vote, the figures showed.
The first round win, which must still be officially confirmed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, means Kenyans who waited four days for the result of the vote will not now face a runoff that would have prolonged the uncertainty.
Yet Kenyatta's slim margin of victory could also fuel legal challenges from his rival, Odinga, who also lost in the 2007 race and whose party has complained about the election process before, during and after Monday's vote.
Even before the vote, Western donors warned that diplomatic ties would be complicated with a win by Kenyatta who, along with his running mate William Ruto, is facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague related to post-election violence five years ago.
However Kenyatta's supporters took the streets to celebrate the perceived win.
Kenyans hope this election, which has till now passed off broadly peacefully, would restore their reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies after the tribal slaughter that followed the disputed 2007 vote.
The test will be whether any challenges to the outcome are worked out in the courts of the newly reformed judiciary, or on the streets.