Kenya set to learn outcome of tight election race

Kenya will on Monday learn the outcome of its closely-fought presidential election after a long wait for results that has put the East African nation on edge.

Deputy President William Ruto was leading with slightly more than 51 percent of the vote against 48 percent for Raila Odinga, based on official results from more than 80 percent of constituencies, according to a tally published by the Daily Nation newspaper.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission called for the media to go to its national tallying centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi at 3 pm (1200 GMT) for the announcement of the presidential results.

At church services on Sunday in the largely Christian country, both men had appealed for calm as the wait for final results of the August 9 vote dragged on.

Polling day passed off largely peacefully in the regional political and economic powerhouse, but memories of vote-rigging and deadly violence in 2007-08 and 2017 still loom large.

The IEBC is under intense pressure to deliver a clean poll in a country regarded as a beacon of stability in a troubled region.

Results must be issued by the end of Tuesday at the latest, according to Kenya's constitution.

"I am ready for whatever outcome. Whether it is Ruto or Raila we must move on. We have waited for too long," said Livingstone Wabwire, 27, a shoe shiner in downtown Nairobi.

"IEBC has taken far too long and they are to blame for all this tension around -- why can't they just announce the winner? We know they finished the tallying process," said Uber driver Mercyline Chemutai, 43.

Disenchantment

Ruto, 55, is deputy president but effectively ran as challenger after outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta threw his support behind his former foe Odinga, the 77-year-old veteran opposition leader making his fifth bid for the top job.

Kenyans voted in six elections to choose a new president as well as senators, governors, lawmakers, women representatives and some 1,500 county officials. Kenyatta, the 60-year-old son of the first post-independence president, has served two terms and could not run again.

The winner of the presidential race needs to secure 50 percent plus one vote and at least a quarter of the votes in 24 of Kenya's 47 counties. If not, the country will be forced to hold a runoff within 30 days of the original vote.

Observers say that with the race so close, an appeal to the Supreme Court by the losing candidate is almost certain, meaning it could be many weeks before a new president takes office.

Turnout on polling day was lower than expected at around 65 percent of Kenya's 22 million registered voters, compared with about 78 percent in the last election in 2017.

Observers blamed disenchantment with the political elite, particularly among young people in a country battling a severe cost- of-living crisis and a punishing drought that has left millions hungry.