Odinga rejects Kenya poll result

Raila Odinga accused a “clique of people” around Mr Kibaki of “trying to rob Kenyans of the election” and said they would not accept the result. Mr Odinga’s party has said it will hold an alternative inauguration ceremony on Monday to declare him president. The announcement of the election result sparked riots in which 13 people died.

A team of observers from the European Union later said the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) had failed to ensure the credibility of the vote. “We believe that… the ECK… has not succeeded in establishing the credibility of the tallying process to the satisfaction of all parties and candidates,” chief EU observer Alexander Lambsdorff said in a statement. The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said London had “real concerns at the irregularities reported by the EU observers and others”. But the United States congratulated Mr Kibaki on his re-election and called on all sides to respect the result despite the allegations of fraud.

‘People’s president’
President Kibaki was sworn in for a second five-year term on Sunday immediately after the ECK announced he had beaten Mr Odinga by more than 230,000 votes in Thursday’s closely-fought election. n a speech, Mr Kibaki described the elections as “free and fair” and urged all political parties to “accept the verdict of the people”.

He said it was now “time for healing and reconciliation” to overcome issues dividing the nation and promised to form a “clean hands government” free of corruption. Earlier on Sunday, Mr Odinga had called on the president to concede victory and demanded a recount, saying the ECK “cannot possible address the multiple levels of fraud administered by this administration”.

“There is a clique of people around Kibaki trying to rob Kenyans of the election,” Mr Odinga later told his supporters after the results were announced. “The train of democracy in Kenya is unstoppable like the flow of the Nile.”

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