VOTES counting began in earnest in Kenya Monday after a peaceful election that observers describe as the most important in the country’s history despite a deadly police ambush that almost marred the exercise.
Before dawn Monday, a long lines of Kenyans queued to vote in the first election since violence-wracked polls five years ago.
But polls were due to close at 17:00 (14:00 GMT) but officials said those in queues at that time would be allowed to vote.
Earlier, there was violence near the port town of Mombasa, with about six policemen killed in two separate attacks, including an ambush by some 200 youths armed with guns and bows and arrows, hours before the opening of polling stations.
Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo said the Mombasa attackers were suspected members of the secessionist Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), and that 400 officers were sent to beef up security in the popular tourist region.
Police have blamed the MRC for a string of attacks last year, and the group had threatened to boycott the polls.
Despite the attack, voters packed the streets in the city.
A remote-controlled bomb was also set off in Mandera – a town in the north east on the border with war-torn Somalia where Kenyan troops are battling Al-Qaeda linked insurgents – but resulted in no casualties, police said.
The tense elections are seen as a crucial test for Kenya, with leaders vowing to avoid a repeat of the bloody 2007-8 post-poll violence in which over 1,100 people were killed.
Observers have repeatedly warned of the risk of renewed conflict, but the conduct of voting itself passed off peacefully with no major reported violent incidents aside the police killing
Voters standing for hours in snaking lines several hundred metres long crowded peacefully outside polling stations to take part in one of the most complex elections Kenya has ever held.
Early partial preliminary results showed the two frontrunners Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga with a clear lead.
Figures released just after 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) and based on some five per cent of ballots cast showed Kenyatta with 400,174 votes and Odinga with 272,519.
Given that a total of 14.3 million Kenyans were registered to vote, analysts said no conclusions on nationwide trends can be drawn from the early figures.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said it had decided to immediately make public figures as and when they are sent in by polling stations.
“As soon as data hits our screens it will be made available to the media in real time,” James Oswago, IEBC executive director, told journalists before the numbers started coming in.
The results from the 2007 polls, which Mwai Kibaki won against Odinga, sparked a wave of protests, notably because of the absence of transparency in the way the tallying was done at that time.
Courtesy: AFP