Kenyan opposition rejects 'fake' presidential poll results

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Fears of post-election clashes in Kenya rose on Wednesday after opposition leader Raila Odinga rejected early results showing he was losing to incumbent and long-time rival, Uhuru Kenyatta.

Kenyatta had 55 percent of the vote and Odinga 44 percent, the electoral commission website said at 0300 GMT on Wednesday, after nearly two-thirds of the polling stations had reported results.

National Super Alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga prepares to vote on August 8, 2017 in Nairobi. /AFP Photo

Odinga denounced the results as "fictitious" and "fake", and insisted his party's own tally put him ahead.

"We have our projections from our agents which show we are ahead by far," the 72-year-old said.

He also questioned why scanned copies of forms signed by party agents in polling stations had not been posted online.

Should there be a discrepancy between a result on the website and the form, Kenyan law dictates the result on the form will be considered final.

Kenya 's President Uhuru Kenyatta speaks to the media after voting at a polling station during the August 8, 2017 presidential election in Gatundu, Kiambu County. /AFP Photo

Shrouded in fears of violence, the vote pitted Kenyatta, a wealthy 55-year-old businessman and the son of Kenya's founding president, against Odinga, a former political prisoner and son of Kenya's first vice president.

Opinion polls released a week ago had put them neck-and-neck. Campaigning was marked by fiery rhetoric, but public speeches were largely free of the ethnic hatred that has marred previous contests as the two men faced off for the second time.

An electoral commission official counts ballots at a polling station in Nairobi on August 8, 2017. /AFP Photo

The electoral commission urged voters to wait calmly for the results.

"During this critical phase, we urge all Kenyans to exercise restraint as we await official results from the polling stations and indeed as they start trickling in," it said.

Odinga comes from the Luo people in western Kenya, an area that has long felt neglected by the government and resentful of their perceived exclusion from political power.

Kenyatta is a Kikuyu, an ethnic group that has supplied three of Kenya's four presidents since the independence from Britain in 1963.

Source(s): Reuters