NAIROBI: Kenya's deputy prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces an international crimes against humanity trial, took an initial lead in presidential elections Tuesday, the first since disputed polls five years ago sparked a wave of violence.
Kenyatta edged ahead in partial results over rival Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who says he was robbed of victory in 2007 when disputed results triggered bloody ethnic violence in which more than 1,100 people were killed and 600,000 were forced to flee their homes.
While millions of Kenyans turned out peacefully on Monday for the elections, how they react to the final results will be key to stability in the regional powerhouse.
Voters stood for hours in long snaking lines several people thick outside polling stations to take part in one of the most complex elections Kenya has ever held.
Some 40 percent of the almost 32,000 polling stations had sent partial results 24 hours after official centres closed to the national tallying centre in Nairobi, with so far five million valid votes counted from the 14.3 million registered voters.
Of those counted at 5:15 pm (1415 GMT), Kenyatta had won almost 2.7 million or 53 percent of valid votes cast against Odinga with 2.12 million or 41 percent, a gap that could still be easily overturned.
But a staggering 320,000 ballots were rejected, making up more than five percent of votes cast and totalling more than the third candidate in the race, deputy prime minister Musalia Mudavadi, who has less than three percent of votes so far.
None of the other five candidates had taken more than one percent.
"This election is a turning point, and its outcome will determine whether the country will proceed as a civilised state," the Daily Nation newspaper said, adding that all Kenyans must "be ready to accept the election results."
Hours before polling stations opened, at least six policemen and six attackers said to be a separatist group were killed in clashes in the Indian Ocean coast, while one person was wounded after several bombs exploded in Mandera, on the northeastern border with war-torn Somalia.
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