Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta reacts after he was announced winner of the presidential election at the IEBC National Tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya, in Nairobi, Kenya August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s main domestic poll monitoring organization, ELOG, said on Saturday it had found no evidence to suggest this week’s election was manipulated or inaccurate, as the opposition have attested.

ELOG’s parallel vote tally projected a victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta with 54 percent of ballots cast, compared to an official count of 54.3 percent. This was well within ELOG’s 1.9 percent margin of error, the group said.

Related Coverage Kenyan girl shot dead by police in Nairobi slum: witness</s>It's Official: Kenyan President Wins Re-Election. But Will Opposition Concede?

Enlarge this image toggle caption Ben Curtis/AP Ben Curtis/AP

Updated 5:50 p.m. ET

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has won a second five-year term, the country's electoral commission announced Friday. The official results show Kenyatta achieving re-election comfortably, with a lead of more than 1.4 million votes over his principal challenger, Raila Odinga.

"We are all citizens of one republic," Kenyatta said on national television after what was a bruising and bitter campaign.

"As with any competition," he continued, "there shall always be winners and there shall be losers. But we all belong to one great nation called Kenya."

Yet it's not clear that Odinga will readily accept the outcome, which he has vehemently protested since preliminary results for Tuesday's election began portending a Kenyatta victory. As recently as Thursday, Odinga's campaign manager, Musalia Mudavadi, declared victory for his candidate, saying that "a serious attempt to try to either doctor or alter the final results" had fraudulently swung the balance of the election.

At a news conference Thursday, Odinga's camp presented alternative figures showing him leading by several hundred thousand votes — but, as NPR's Eyder Peralta notes, it did not clarify where these figures were obtained.

After the mysterious murder and torture of a high-ranking elections official late last month, Odinga claimed that — in Eyder's words — "a hacker used that man's credentials to go into the electoral reporting system and changed the result."

Electoral commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati has rejected the opposition's argument, however, saying the evidence they provided is "obviously and plainly falsified and contains elementary errors."

Enlarge this image toggle caption Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

And while Chebukati acknowledges that there was an an attempt to hack the country's voting system, he maintained that the attempt failed.

International observers, for their part, have lent their blessing to the electoral process in Kenya, saying that despite "minor variances" the election was conducted freely and fairly. And they cautioned that complaints with the process should be taken up through legal means, without recourse to the kind of violence that racked the country after its 2007 elections.

"It is important for all of the candidates to allow the process to be transparently put to the test," former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is observing the election on behalf of the Carter Center, told CNN. "And then if they have a concern, go through the rule of law, go to the court process and let the evidence be there for everybody to see."

Already, though, tensions have boiled over into violence in some of the slums of Nairobi. At least two people have been killed in protests led by opposition demonstrators.

Enlarge this image toggle caption Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images

The country has mobilized some 180,000 security officers to grapple with the potential for further unrest, according to the BBC.

The specter of the violence a decade ago still looms large in the memories of voters, officials and independent observers. More than 1,000 people were killed in a brutal bout of bloodshed that broke down largely along tribal lines.

And it's not the only role the past has played in the turmoil of recent weeks. As Eyder noted, this election marks something of a culmination for Kenyatta and Odinga, whose rivalry dates back to the 1960s, when their fathers — who once served as president and vice president themselves — had a bitter falling out.

Odinga has said this campaign, his fourth bid for president, will be his last.

"We do not want to see any violence in Kenya. We know the consequences of what happened in 2008 and we don't want to see a repeat of that anymore," he told CNN on Thursday.

But Odinga added: "I don't control anybody. What is happening is that people just want to see justice."</s>Kenya's opposition coalition has said yesterday's general election was “fraudulent” because hackers acting on behalf of the governing party compromised the electoral body’s database, as they urged their supporters to remain calm.

Presidential candidate Raila Odinga, who is running on the National Super Alliance (NASA) ticket, said his team uncovered evidence of hacking into the electoral commission's database. Odinga did not answer questions about the source of evidence that he says supports the claims.

Odinga is running against incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee Party in what he has said will be his last race. It is his fourth attempt at the presidency.

Provisional results released by the country’s electoral body show Kenyatta leading Odinga by about 9.5% of the vote with 7.8m votes.

Speaking at a press conference in Nairobi, Odinga said "some persons gained entry" to the electoral body's database and added votes for the ruling Jubilee Party.

"The 2017 general election was a fraud," Odinga said. "We are telling people not to accept these results; we are asking them to stay calm."

Odinga later tweeted that NASA's tallying of yesterday's election indicated that he received 8.1m votes, beating Kenyatta’s 7.2m votes.

But Kenya's electoral body and experts said the claims were premature because no official results had been released.

The country's electoral body, the International Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IEBC), has released provisional results from electronic voting transmission systems across the country.

"The results that are displayed on the screen are not the official results," said Wafula Chebukati, the IEBC's chairman. “For now, I cannot say whether the system was hacked,” he added.

Charles Hornsby, a historian specialising on Kenya, said: "It makes no difference what the IEBC's screens in the Bomas tallying centre say because the election results are only issued by the constituency."

The country's court of appeals ruled on 23 June that presidential election results will be declared at the constituency level. The IEBC had fought the ruling, asking for results to only be declared at the national tallying centre.

Odinga said the hacking was linked to the murder of Chris Msando, the IEBC's systems development manager, who was tortured before being strangled to death on the evening of 28 July. Odinga said Msando's “logins were used to gain access into the IEBC Core Server and freely alter election data”.

"This takes Mr. Kenyatta and [Deputy President] William Ruto’s fraud on our morality to another level," Odinga said. "But you can only cheat a people for so long."

Kenya's government has denied any involvement in Msando's murder.

Speaking before Odinga’s hacking claims, the Jubilee Party’s secretary-general Raphael Tuju said his party was satisfied with provisional results.</s>Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) President Uhuru Kenyatta has won re-election in Kenya, defeating veteran opposition leader and longtime rival Raila Odinga in a tense contest.

Kenya's election commission declared Friday that the 55-year-old businessman and son of the country's founding President had received enough votes to secure a second five-year term.

Provisional and unverified reporting following Tuesday's vote had given Kenyatta a wide margin of 54% to 45% with 98% of polling stations reporting.

He garnered 54.27% of the final vote; Odinga received 44.74%.

The nation's top elections official, Wafula Chebukati, said the vote was carried out in a "free, fair and credible manner."

Odinga, running as the opposition's National Super Alliance candidate, told CNN Thursday that he doesn't "trust" the paper forms from polling stations around the country that officials used to authenticate votes.

Odinga said the forms could have been "manipulated" before being returned to the capital. At a news conference Thursday, members of Odinga's party gave no evidence to support any claims of election tampering, citing only unnamed sources at the election commission.

In a letter released Friday morning, Wafula Chebukati, chairman of Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), rejected the opposition coalition's evidence of election fraud, calling it "obviously and plainly falsified."

On Thursday, Chebukati said tampering with the election system "was attempted but did not succeed," without elaborating further.

"It is a sign of leadership and public service to be able to congratulate your opponent with grace as a normal and important part of democracy," Marietje Schaake, head of the European Union's mission, said in a statement.

"And should there be a need to challenge any of the proceedings or outcomes, petitions through the courts are the avenue to take."

Over 400 international election monitors -- including officials from the United States and the EU -- were deployed across the country to monitor voting, the tallying process and part of the post-election period.

Former US secretary of State John Kerry, who served as an election observer for the Carter Center, said Thursday that while there were "little aberrations here and there," the election was not rigged.

"If anything was electronically fiddled with, there is a way to go back and absolutely ascertain what happened in the polling station," he said. "So by paper ballots, there is a protection of each and every Kenyan's vote."

Peaceful elections in East Africa's largest economy would help provide stability to the region but allegations of vote rigging have sparked concern with some Kenyans fearing ethnic clashes similar to those triggered a decade ago.

More than 1,000 died in months of violence and bloodshed after Odinga -- who had been defeated by the then-President Mwai Kibaki -- claimed the 2007 election had been rigged.

Odinga and his party repeatedly called for calm this week as the final results were compiled.

Nairobi remained quieter than usual after the national holiday on Tuesday. Some businesses were open in the city center but mostly people were remaining indoors; other residents who went to their home villages to vote might also have stayed away.

In Kisumu, a local journalist described the city center as "a ghost town."

At least two people died in election-related violence after brief protests broke out in several Odinga strongholds -- in Nairobi and Kisumu -- on Wednesday. The day before, a polling agent from Odinga's party was killed in a machete attack in Tana River county.

"We do not want to see any violence in Kenya. We know the consequences of what happened in 2008 and we don't want to see a repeat of that anymore," Odinga told CNN on Thursday.

"I don't control anybody. What is happening is that people just want to see justice. We also hope that the security forces are not going to use excessive force."</s>Uhuru Kenyatta won a second term as president of Kenya in this week’s election, the electoral commission said on Friday amid opposition claims of fraud.

With 54.27 per cent of the vote, Kenyatta prevailed over perennial opposition standard-bearer Raila Odinga, who garnered 44.74 of the ballots cast on Tuesday, Efe reported.

The announcement of the final tally was delayed by seven hours and took place without the presence of representatives of the National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition, who boycotted the presentation after signaling that it would not accept the results.

Turnout was 78.91 per cent, down from nearly 85 per cent in 2013, electoral commission chief Wafula Chebukati said, describing the process as “credible, fair and peaceful.”

NASA, however, says that data provided by an anonymous source inside the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) shows Odinga won with 50.13 of the vote.

The anonymous source told NASA that the electronic voting system had been tampered with to ensure victory for Kenyatta, an accusation denied by IEBC.

All of the international election observer missions who monitored the balloting agreed that the process was transparent.

Talking to reporters ahead of the proclamation of Kenyatta as president-elect, NASA spokesman James Orengo said that the opposition would not pursue legal remedies.

“Court is not an alternative. We have been there before,” he said.

Kenya’s Supreme Court rejected the challenge Odinga brought after he lost the 2013 election to Kenyatta.

Police were deployed Friday to opposition strongholds across Kenya in anticipation of protests following the proclamation of Kenyatta’s victory and trouble broke out within minutes of the IEBC announcement.

“People are demonstrating in the street. Some places are burning, there are many shots,” a woman identifying herself only as Gladys said.

In Mathare, another capital district where Odinga has many supporters, police used tear gas and fired shots into the air to break up protests, area resident Don told EFE.

“There is looting, this is war,” Don said from Mathare, where police fatally shot two opposition protesters on Wednesday.

Violent clashes between police and demonstrators were also reported in the western city of Kisumu.

Odinga cried foul in 2007 following his defeat to then-incumbent Mwai Kibaki. Violent opposition protests and reprisals by security forces sparked ethnic violence that led to roughly 1,200 deaths.

Kenyatta sounded a conciliatory note in his acceptance speech following the announcement of the results.

“As I said to my worthy opponents, especially my brother, the Right Honorable Raila Odinga, I reach out to you; I reach out to all your supporters,” Kenyatta said.

“We shall work together, we shall partner together, we shall grow together, we shall develop this nation together. We are there, ready to dialogue, to discourse and engage so that we can build this nation together,” the president-elect said.

Kenyatta also made an appeal for calm.

“I take this opportunity once again to call upon all Kenyans to exercise the same peace and tranquility we have seen before and during these elections. Your neighbor will always be your neighbor and we cannot fight over an election,” he said.</s>(CNN) President Uhuru Kenyatta has won re-election in Kenya, defeating veteran opposition leader and longtime rival Raila Odinga in a tense contest.

Kenya's election commission declared Friday that the 55-year-old businessman and son of the country's founding President had received enough votes to secure a second five-year term.

Kenyatta garnered 54.27% of the final vote, similar to what he had in a preliminary count. Odinga received 44.74%.

The President, in a nationally broadcast speech, said he and his opponent were not enemies.

"We are all citizens of one republic," he said. "As with any competition, there shall always be winners and there shall be losers. But we all belong to one great nation called Kenya."

Kenyatta said he wanted to work with the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA).

"I extend a hand of partnership knowing fully well that this country needs all of us pulling together in order for us to succeed," he said.

Congratulations came from Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who applauded Kenyatta on Twitter "for a successful election and the trust Kenyans have placed in you!"

The President told his countrymen there was no need for violence.

The nation's top elections official, Wafula Chebukati, said the vote was carried out in a "free, fair and credible manner."

Speaking before the declaration, Musalia Mudavadi, co-principal of NASA, said the organization would not be party to the announcement of Kenyatta as President, citing unresolved concerns about the veracity of the electoral process.

"The issues we raised have not been adequately addressed," he said. "One can conclude that they (Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) were not keen on taking our concerns seriously."

James Orengo, NASA party chief agent, described the process as a "disaster." "This has been an entire charade. The judgment is now out there in the court of public opinion."

Odinga, running as the NASA candidate, told CNN Thursday that he doesn't "trust" the paper forms from polling stations around the country that officials used to authenticate votes.

Odinga said the forms could have been "manipulated" before being returned to the capital. At a news conference Thursday, members of Odinga's party gave no evidence to support any claims of election tampering, citing only unnamed sources at the election commission.

In a letter released Friday morning, Chebukati, the chairman of the election commission, rejected the opposition coalition's evidence of election fraud, calling it "obviously and plainly falsified."

On Thursday, Chebukati said tampering with the election system "was attempted but did not succeed," without elaborating further.

More than 400 international election monitors -- including officials from the United States and the EU -- were deployed across the country to monitor voting, the tallying process and part of the post-election period.

Former US secretary of State John Kerry, who served as an election observer for the Carter Center, said Thursday that while there were "little aberrations here and there," the election was not rigged.

"If anything was electronically fiddled with, there is a way to go back and absolutely ascertain what happened in the polling station," he said. "So by paper ballots, there is a protection of each and every Kenyan's vote."

Peaceful elections in East Africa's largest economy would help provide stability to the region but allegations of vote rigging have sparked concern with some Kenyans fearing ethnic clashes similar to those triggered a decade ago.

More than 1,000 died in months of violence and bloodshed after Odinga -- who had been defeated by the then-President Mwai Kibaki -- claimed the 2007 election had been rigged.

Odinga and his party repeatedly called for calm this week as the final results were compiled.

Nairobi remained quieter than usual after the national holiday on Tuesday. Some businesses were open in the city center but mostly people were remaining indoors; other residents who went to their home villages to vote might also have stayed away.

In Kisumu, a local journalist described the city center as "a ghost town."

At least two people died in election-related violence after brief protests broke out in several Odinga strongholds -- in Nairobi and Kisumu -- on Wednesday. The day before, a polling agent from Odinga's party was killed in a machete attack in Tana River county.

"We do not want to see any violence in Kenya. We know the consequences of what happened in 2008 and we don't want to see a repeat of that anymore," Odinga told CNN on Thursday.

"I don't control anybody. What is happening is that people just want to see justice. We also hope that the security forces are not going to use excessive force."</s>Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga said he refuses to accept the results of the presidential election, even though the results haven’t been announced yet.

With more than 98% of the polling stations reporting, Odinga trailed incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in a 54%-45% split Thursday.

Odinga claims the election was rigged in favor of Kenyatta, with the server hacked as results were transmitted.

At a press conference Thursday, members of Odinga’s party gave no evidence to back up his claim, citing only unnamed sources at Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, known as the IEBC.

Odinga told CNN he wants an “independent audit of the transaction log to the server.”

While the challenger said the election was a fraud, former US Secretary of State John Kerry tried to reassure Kenyans the election wasn’t rigged.

On Thursday, Kerry said he was confident in the integrity of the Kenyan elections and praised the country’s election commission for its transparency and diligence.

The 73-year-old Kerry is co-leading the Carter Center’s mission of election observers, who released their preliminary observations a day after Odinga claimed early electronic election results had been compromised by hackers.

“The process is still underway. But we believe that the election’s commission in Kenya has put together a process that will allow each and every vote’s integrity to be proven,” Kerry said, noting that there were “little aberrations here and there.”

He reiterated that the IEBC is still working to verify the electronic online reporting with the physical ballot forms from polling stations, as required by law.

“If anything was electronically fiddled with, there is a way to go back and absolutely ascertain what happened in the polling station,” he said. “So by paper ballots, there is a protection of each and every Kenyan’s vote.”

Odinga’s complaints of election irregularities have stoked fears of aggrieved supporters taking to the streets in a scenario reminiscent of violence that erupted in the aftermath of the December 2007 election.

More than 1,000 people were killed in a campaign of ethnic violence in the months after Odinga, defeated by then-President Mwai Kibaki, claimed the vote was rigged.

Odinga’s opposition party, the National Super Alliance, has repeatedly called for calm as the final results are compiled.

“We do not want to see any violence in Kenya. We know the consequences of what happened in 2008 and we don’t want to see a repeat of that anymore,” Odinga told CNN on Thursday.

“I don’t control anybody. What is happening is that people just want to see justice. We also hope that the security forces are not going to use excessive force.”

The election in Kenya, the biggest economy in East Africa and a regional hub, was peaceful and enthusiastic on Tuesday.

But confrontations emerged a day later between police and protesters in opposition strongholds in the capital and the western city of Kisumu, leaving at least two people dead.

On Thursday, Nairobi appeared to be somewhat quieter than usual, possibly due to school holidays and some concern from residents about potential violence. But people were returning to their daily routines after the national holiday on Tuesday, and some businesses were open.

Over 400 international election observers — including officials from the United States and the European Union — were deployed across the country to monitor voting, the tallying process and part of the post-election period.

Marietje Schaake, the head of the EU’s mission, said Thursday that the group had seen “no signs of centralized or localized manipulation” after assessing voting procedures.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the voting authority, acknowledged Thursday that there had been an unsuccessful attempt to tamper with its election system.

“The commission has responded to the claims by (the National Super Alliance). Preliminary reports show hacking was attempted but did not succeed,” Chebukati said, without elaborating further on the failed hack.

Odinga, a 72-year-old former political prisoner who was running for president for a fourth time, had flatly rejected the preliminary results as “fake” the day before.

He said hackers had infiltrated the election authority’s systems using the identity of Chris Msando, an election official who was tortured and murdered a week before the vote.

“What the IEBC has posted as results of the Presidential Elections is a complete fraud based on a multiplier that fraudulently gave Uhuru Kenyatta votes that were not cast,” he said in a series of tweets.

“We have uncovered the fraud. Uhuru must go home,” he added. “The IEBC must be fully accountable.”</s>Kenya’s incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta was officially declared the winner Friday of a heated election that his rival claims to have won, setting off violent protests in some opposition strongholds.

Reports of rioting in several slum districts of the capital, Nairobi, and in parts of western Kenya stoked fears of a reprise of deadly ethnic fighting that followed another disputed election a decade ago.

In a nationally televised address, Kenyatta, 55, reached out to his opponents and appealed for calm, saying, "We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic.

"Let us always remember that we are brothers and sisters,” he said. “Let us be peaceful. There is no need for violence. Your neighbor is your neighbor, regardless of their ethnicity."

Kenyatta won just over 54% of the vote Tuesday, compared with 45% for his rival, Raila Odinga, according to results released by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

But leaders of the opposition National Super Alliance rejected the results before they were even announced, saying they had obtained figures from the commission’s computer servers showing that Odinga won just over 50% of the vote.

“If they can open those servers, we are willing to accept the result based on what is in those servers,” a senior opposition figure, James Orengo, told reporters. “There should be no rush to judgment ... The matter may not be closed as soon as some people think.”

Wafula Chebukati, the electoral commission’s chairman, declined to give opposition officials access to the computer system, saying he would deal with their concerns after the final results were declared.

Shortly before the official announcement, opposition leaders addressed reporters again and said they wanted no part in the results.

A senior opposition figure, Musalia Mudavadi, said the coalition had raised “very serious concerns” with the commission that had “not been adequately addressed.”

Orengo called the result “a charade” and accused the electoral commission of violating Kenya’s constitution. He said going to court was “not an option” and “Kenyans always rise up.”

The result, which had been expected by midafternoon, came after darkness fell.

Soon afterward, there were reports of violent exchanges between opposition supporters and police, who responded with tear gas, and in some cases, live bullets, according to witnesses.

“Everybody is outside and protesting,” said Petronella Achieng, a resident of Nairobi’s Kibera slum who was reached by phone. “Police are chasing people out of the road, but people are also throwing stones back.”

In Mathare, another volatile slum district, youths poured into the streets as soon as the result was announced and started attacking other people’s homes, according to a local peace activist, Jakiwa Inda. “People are demonstrating, and there’s a lot of tear gas,” he said.

There were also reports of clashes in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold in western Kenya.

It was not immediately possible to confirm whether there were any casualties; at least three people were killed in clashes earlier in the week.

It is the third successive election that Odinga, 72, has lost and disputed. In a nation where ethnicity plays a large role in voter loyalties, and political power is often used to hand out jobs and patronage to ethnic allies, Odinga’s Luo supporters feel marginalized and excluded.

Violence broke out across Kenya after a disputed election in 2007. Then-President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, had himself sworn into office in the dead of night, sparking ethnic killing that claimed some 1,500 lives.

The electoral commission’s electronic vote tabulation system was intended to help restore confidence in the election process. But accusations by the opposition in recent days that the commission’s computers had been hacked undermined the already fragile public trust in the system.

As the results were being counted this week, opposition officials repeatedly asserted that the figures displayed by the electoral commission differed from those on its server — a claim rejected by electoral officials. The opposition also alleged that the commission had not received about 11,000 of the official tally forms compiled at more than 40,800 polling stations.

The opposition has the option to challenge the result in court, although Odinga did so unsuccessfully in 2013. While campaigning this year, Odinga insisted that if he lost again, it meant that the election must be rigged, and he hinted that he might call for protests.

International observers have said that the vote appeared credible and have urged the opposition to pursue their allegations through legal channels.

Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president after independence from Britain, appeared jubilant Friday, waving from the roof of his limousine as he sped from his home to his party headquarters before the result was announced.

Wild celebrations broke out among Kenyatta’s supporters as expectations about the result rose and continued into the night.

3:40 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction to the results and reports of violence breaking out.

This article was originally published at 12:30 p.m.</s>Kenya’s main opposition coalition claimed victory Thursday in a contentious presidential election and demanded that its candidate, Raila Odinga, be declared the winner.

Odinga was trailing by more than 1.4 million votes, according to provisional results released by the country’s election commission with 97% of polling stations reporting. But the opposition professed to have obtained internal commission figures showing that its candidate had defeated the incumbent president, Uhuru Kenyatta.

There were reports of celebrations in some opposition strongholds. But if Kenyatta is declared the winner, it risks igniting tense protests among Odinga’s supporters in Nairobi’s volatile slum districts and in western parts of the country.

As Kenya faces the prospect of another disputed election, there were fears of a reprise of the ethnic violence that killed an estimated 1,500 people following a similar dispute in 2007.

In Kenya, memories of election horrors set an ominous tone for Tuesday's vote »

Sporadic clashes have erupted between police and opposition supporters since Odinga told his followers Wednesday that hackers had manipulated data in the election commission’s computer system.

After years of ethnic tension and public mistrust in Kenya’s elections, an electronic system used to tally the paper votes has become the main bone of contention.

At a news conference Thursday, a senior figure in the opposition National Super Alliance, Musalia Mudavadi, accused the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of posting results on its website that were at odds with the results contained on its server.

Mudavadi claimed Odinga had won just over 8 million votes, compared with 7.1 million for Kenyatta.

“The accurate and lawful results in the presidential election is the transmission received from the polling stations and contained in the IEBC servers,” he said.

Mudavadi urged opposition supporters to remain calm, saying the alliance would present evidence of its allegations in court.

Odinga, who on Wednesday had said that the opposition might call on its supporters to stage protests, was present at Thursday’s news conference but did not speak to reporters.

Opposition leaders met with the election commission chairman, Wafula Chebukati, on Thursday to demand that it stop posting “unverified results.”

Chebukati, who has promised to investigate any allegations of fraud, admitted there had been a hacking attack, but said it had failed.

After a hard-fought campaign, international observers praised the commission’s handling of the election and urged Kenyans to give members time to complete their work, which will include checking the electronic results against paper records.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, an observer for the Carter Center, said Kenyans could rely on the vote tally forms, which were signed by party agents at the nation’s more than 40,800 polling stations and posted online by the commission, to ensure that the final result was fair.

“It is the paper ballots and the accounting process established by the IEBC that tell the story of this elections, not the electronic transmission of those numbers,” he said.

Although Kerry said the allegations of hacking “deserve to be taken seriously,” he urged Kenyans to resolve their differences in court and not in the streets.

“Any candidate’s legitimate evidence of something that happened needs to be judged, but it needs to be judged through the appropriate process,” Kerry said.

The European Union’s observer team said it had seen no evidence of any attempts to manipulate the results, but added that it was not in a position to investigate claims of hacking or electronic manipulation.

Both Kerry and the head of the EU team, Marietje Schaake, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, recalled the pain of their own election defeats and urged losing candidates to concede defeat graciously.

Kenya faces entrenched corruption, and its presidential elections tend to be winner-takes-all affairs, producing victors who dole out jobs and favoritism to ethnic allies.

With Kenyatta appearing certain of retaining power, the mistrust of opposition supporters in the system was evident on the commission’s Facebook page.

“Never again will I wake up and go to vote for a predetermined results [sic],” wrote one angry voter. “I will never ever ever ever ever associate with an electoral body in Kenya. Neither will I advise my children to vote.”

Others, apparently supporters of Kenyatta, urged the commission to announce the result immediately, so they could start celebrating.

One worried commentator said Kenyans shouldn’t allow politicians to divide them.

“As a developing nation, we have come a long way. Instead of bashing IEBC, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and encourage them,” the Facebook user wrote. “They’re all we have. This is our country. We have no other motherland.”

12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with the opposition’s claim of victory and additional staff reporting

This article was originally published at 9 a.m.</s>Kenya’s opposition said on Friday it would “not be a party” to the election commission’s imminent announcement of the result of the presidential vote because its concerns had not been addressed.

Provisional results from polling stations show President Uhuru Kenyatta with a lead of 1.4 million votes as he vies for a second and final five-year term.

Opposition candidate, Raila Odinga’s camp has disputed the count and said it would accept the election result only if allowed to see raw data on the commission’s computer servers.

Mr. Odinga has lost the last two elections, claiming fraud in both cases.

Many Kenyans fear a repeat of the violence that followed the 2007 contested election, when about 1,200 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as political protests led to ethnic killings.

“We raised some very serious concerns, they have not responded to them. As NASA (opposition coalition) we shall not be party to the process they are about to make,” senior opposition official, Musalia Mudavadi, said.

James Orengo, Chief Election Agent, the opposition coalition, said: “This has been an entire charade.

“The Kenyan people have never disappointed … every time an election has been stolen, the Kenyan people have stood up to make sure changes are made to make Kenya a better place,’’ Mr. Orengo said.

“Going to court, for us, is not an alternative. We have been there before.”

Earlier, Mr. Orengo had called for the candidates and observers to be given access to the election commission’s servers so there could be a transparent audit of data from 41,000 polling stations across the country.

Yakub Guliye, Election Commissioner in charge of Information Technology, said the opposition had not made a formal request and it would not act on a verbal request.

Normal procedure calls for the commission to release final results after cross checking its electronic tally with paper forms.

Mr. Odinga’s camp has said figures released by the commission since on Tuesday’s vote were “fictitious” and that “confidential sources” within the commission had provided figures showing Mr. Odinga had a large lead in the race.

The election commission rejected the claims, pointing out they contained basic mathematical errors.

Police had beefed up security across much of Kenya – particularly in opposition strongholds in the west and parts of Nairobi – in anticipation of the announcing of the election result on Friday.

At an international conference centre, ruling party supporters sang “Today is our day, God is good” as the president arrived to address them.

Kenya is the leading economy in East Africa and any instability would be likely to ripple through the region.

Mr. Odinga is a member of the Luo, an ethnic group from the west of the country that has long said it is excluded from power.

Mr. Kenyatta is from the Kikuyu group, which has supplied three of four presidents since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963.

International observers have given the thumbs-up to the vote and U.S. Ambassador Robert Godec issued a statement on behalf of the diplomatic community calling for any complaints to be channeled through the courts, not street protests.

“If there are disputes or disagreements, the Kenyan constitution is very clear on how they are to be addressed. Violence must never be an option,” he said on Friday.

“The observers largely served the interests of the government,” Mr. Orengo said.

As well as a new president, Kenyans also elected new lawmakers and local representatives. Some of those races have also been disputed, leading to violence in Garissa and Tana River counties. (Reuters/NAN)
The Kenyan electoral commission announces that President Uhuru Kenyatta has won re-election. Kenyatta leads ODM candidate Raila Odinga by more than 1.4 million votes. The opposition National Super Alliance rejects this finding as fraudulent.