Kenyan president urges people to vote peacefully

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday urged Kenyans to participate on election day peacefully and vote for any candidate they wish to see as the country’s next leader.

Kenya will go to the ballot boxes Tuesday, which is mainly a contest between Kenyatta, who was elected in 2013 for his first term, and the opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, who is running under the platform of the National Super Alliance.

Odinga has tried to become president four times in the past but he never emerged victorious.

There are eight presidential candidates in total but Kenyatta and Raila were the only ones who scored 50 percent in recent opinion polls; rest of the candidates scored less than five percent. The voting process will also elect new set of parliamentarians.

In his final televised speech as the East African country’s president ahead of the much-anticipated elections, Kenyatta said he was not speaking as a presidential candidate but as the president of Kenya.

He pleaded with Kenyans to come out in as many numbers as possible to vote for their preferred candidates and above all to maintain peace.

He urged “every single eligible citizen to turn out tomorrow in great numbers to do that which our democracy entitles you to do -- vote for the candidates of your choice; my plea is that as we do so, let us do so in peace”.

The speech came hours before 20 million Kenyans registered by the country's electoral body head to the polls, which are set to open at 6 a.m. East African time (0300 GMT).

Over 150,000 police officers have been deployed to ensure that the electoral body -- the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission -- conducts the exercise smoothly at 40,883 polling stations across the country.

Kenyans are expected to know about their new president by Wednesday morning, though the electoral body said there could be some delays because 11,000 polling stations out of the 40,883 lack 3G or 4G network connectivity.