Kenyatta's top slogan is "For a fresh start"

NAIROBI, December 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Some 10 million voters in Kenya go to the polls Friday, December 27, to choose their first new president in 24 years and to elect members of parliament and local councils amid warnings of possible fraud.

The front-runners in what has been billed as the most important poll since independence from Britain in 1963 are Uhuru Kenyatta, 42, for the ruling Kenya National African Union (KANU) and veteran politician Mwai Kibaki, 71, of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), an alliance of more than a dozen opposition parties, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Thursday, December 26.

Both men are from the economically and demographically dominant Kikuyu tribe.

Although an independent opinion poll earlier this month predicted Kibaki would win 68 percent of the vote against Kenyatta's 21 percent, the KANU candidate has expressed confidence in his victory.

Daniel arap Moi, 78, who has ruled since 1978, is barred by the constitution from running again and handpicked the politically inexperienced Kenyatta, the son of founding president Jomo Kenyatta, to carry KANU's flag, said AFP.

Aside from a few isolated incidents of violence, campaigning, which ends at midnight Thursday, December 26, has been largely peaceful.

Two NARC supporters died, one shot and the other run over by a lorry, when police chased a group of people alleged to have been harassing members of the public in Nairobi, police said.

Both Kibaki and Kenyatta, as well as rival presidential candidates Simeon Nyachae, James Orengo and David Ng'ethe, have focused their campaigns on economic recovery and each worked hard to present himself as the man best able to deliver a break from the past.

For most Kenyans, the past means rampant corruption, mismanagement, the degradation of infrastructure and increasing poverty, even if Kenya has been spared the conflicts that have ravaged much of the region, said AFP.

Kenyatta's top slogan is "For a fresh start" and he has pledged to inject probity and a sense of the national good into the corridors of power.

He has portrayed NARC, which includes many defectors from the ruling party, as an unhappy marriage of convenience, and one that is destined to break up if the opposition wins.

NARC, meanwhile, has focused on the ills of the Moi regime, warning that these would be perpetuated if KANU won and has played up the unity of the coalition.

"The only chance for a real change," is one of NARC's slogans.

There have been numerous warnings, both from within Kenya and from foreign observers, that attempts may be made to rig the elections.

"We are concerned about some issues that might make the elections not absolutely free and fair," Anders Wijkman, head of the European Union Election Observer Mission (EUEOM), told a news conference in Nairobi Tuesday, December 24.

"There are some areas in the country where relief food and money have been used to rally the support of some communities. It is outrageous," said Wijkman, a Swedish member of the European Parliament.

On Monday, December 23, Amnesty International highlighted incidents of violence and intimidation reported in the run-up to the poll.

"Violence is not concentrated on any one party, with attacks being suffered by candidates and supporters on all sides," the London-based organization said.

Allegations of bribery and buying of voter cards have also been made, while NARC warned Thursday its agents and supporters to take their own food and drink to polling stations to avert the risk of being drugged.

As well as a new president, the third since independence, Friday's election will also determine the composition of the 222-seat (12 of them nominated) parliament and of local government councils across the country.

Vote counting is due to start at polling stations as soon as 12 hours of voting ends at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).

The electoral commission is expected to announce the winner of the presidential election on Sunday, December 29.