Kenyatta declared winner of Kenyan presidential election by tiny margin

Many in the election centre cheered, although celebrations started in the early hours of Saturday after provisional results showed Kenyatta's victory. Supporters thronged the streets of Nairobi and his tribal strongholds, lighting fluorescent flares and waving tree branches and chanting "Uhuru, Uhuru".

The mood was tense but calm in the heartlands of Kenyatta's rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who also lost in the disputed 2007 vote and trailed this time with 43.3 percent.

"No Raila, no peace," Odinga supporters chanted as security forces stood by in Kisumu, a city where violence flared in 2007. 

Speaking before the formal declaration, a close adviser to Odinga said his candidate would challenge the result if Kenyatta was declared winner.

"He is not conceding the election," Salim Lone told Reuters, speaking on behalf of Odinga. "If Uhuru Kenyatta is announced president-elect then he will move to the courts immediately."

Odinga's camp had said during tallying that the ballot count was deeply flawed and had called for it to be halted. But they promised to pursue any disputes in the courts not the streets.

The election commission, plagued by technical problems that slowed the count, took five days to announce the result.

TRIBAL SUPPORT

International observers broadly said the vote and count had been transparent so far and the electoral commission, which replaced an old, discredited body, promised a credible vote.

Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister, achieved the 50 percent mark by a tiny margin of about 8,400 votes out of the more than 12.3 million that were cast.

Both sides relied heavily on their ethnic groups in a nation where tribal loyalties mostly trump ideology at the ballot box. Kenyatta is a Kikuyu, the biggest of Kenya's many tribes, Odinga is a Luo. Both had running mates from other tribes.

John Githongo, a former senior government official-turned-whistleblower, urged the rival coalitions, Odinga's CORD and Kenyatta's Jubilee, to ensure calm. "Jubilee and CORD, what you and your supporters say now determines continued peace and stability in Kenya. We are watching you!" he said on Twitter.

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