NAIROBI, Dec 27: Kenyans flocked to the polls on Thursday in the nation’s closest-ever presidential race, with the ageing incumbent and a fiery opposition leader neck-and-neck and tensions simmering over alleged fraud.

Mwai Kibaki, 76, is seeking a second term, boasting a solid economic record and continued stability, while former political prisoner Raila Odinga, 62, aims to clinch the job that has eluded him and his father for so long.

For the first time since the 1963 independence from Britain, Kenya’s 14 million voters headed to the country’s 27,000 polling stations with no certainties on the winner’s identity.

Hundreds of people were already lining up in the dark when the first polling stations opened at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) and queues several kilometres long quickly formed in the capital Nairobi and elsewhere.

“I slept here because I want to ensure that there is no rigging. We want to vote for change, for change,” said Robert Kipkurui, an Odinga supporter in the western Rift Valley town of Eldoret.

Heavy rains in the northern Mount Kenya and the late arrival of polling equipment and staff in some other areas occasionally delayed the voting, according to reports.

No official figures were available but the European Union observer mission and several polling station officials predicted the turnout would exceed the 57.2 per cent achieved in the 2002 elections.

“There is more turnout than in 2002, there are more youth and more and more people enlightened about choosing their leaders,” said Teresia Kiilu, a polling station official in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slum.

After lavish campaigns on both sides, the run-up to Kenya’s fourth elections since a multi-party system was reintroduced was marred by opposition accusations that Kibaki’s camp was planning to rig the ballot.

Walking out of a polling station in his Nairobi constituency, Odinga said he had not been able to vote because his name was not on the register.

“As you can see this is not by accident but by design. I am so sure that elections will go well and we will get big victory, but we sense a plot to reduce our votes,” he said.—AFP