Kenyatta opposition will contest election result
The Kenyan Prime Minister will contest election results after opposition leader Uhuru Kenyatta won.
KENYA: Kenya's electoral commission has called for calm as Uhuru Kenyatta's supporters begin to celebrate all over the country after a nail-biting finish to a poll that took five days to tally up.
Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding president, won the presidential election with a slim margin of 50.03 percent of votes cast, just enough to avoid a run-off, provisional figures by the election commission showed on Saturday.
Reactions of rival political parties in Kenya are being watched closely to avoid a repeat of the violence experienced in the 2007 elections.
In the prelude to the announcement of the official results the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) CEO James Oswago had a warning.
"We have to celebrate smartly because there is a thin line between energetic celebration and irrational exuberance."
Prime Minister Raila Odinga's campaign team said he will contest the result.
He secured 43.28 percent of the vote.
The electoral commission said the turnout for this poll, a massive 86 percent, is the largest the country has ever seen and congratulated Kenyans for their patience and determination.
Kenyans hoped this vote would restore their nation's reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies after the tribal slaughter that followed the disputed 2007 vote that Odinga said Mwai Kibaki stole from him.
Kenyatta is said to be sworn in on 26 March.
