NAIROBI, (Reuters) – Kenya was poised to adopt a new constitution after partial results yesterday showed more than two-thirds of votes cast in a referendum favoured a law that could reshape the politics of east Africa’s largest economy.
After years of disputed, violent elections the new law is seen as important to avoid a repeat of the post-election tribal bloodshed in early 2008 that killed 1,300 people and pushed the country of about 40 million people to the brink of anarchy.
The changes put to voters yesterday allow for greater checks on presidential powers, more devolution to grassroots administrations and an increase in civil liberties.
The new legal framework addresses the corruption, political patronage, land grabbing and tribalism which have plagued Kenya since it won independence in 1963.
Television pictures showed voters in the tourist city of Mombasa in Kenya’s coast province dancing and cheering what they said was likely to be a resounding victory for the “Yes” camp.
“It does appear that ‘Yes’ is winning overwhelmingly … but we should not come out of this with the division of winners and losers,” Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula told Reuters at the national tallying centre in Nairobi.
“This is part of the healing process from the electoral difficulties of 2007.”
No major incidents were reported at Kenya’s 27,689 polling stations in 210 constituencies.Some 12.5 million people were registered to vote. Of more than 6 million votes counted by yesterday, 66.9 percent had voted “Yes”. The final results are likely later today.
To be adopted, the law requires 50 percent plus one vote of the ballot cast nationally and at least 25 percent of the votes in five of Kenya’s eight provinces.
Regional election observers said they were satisfied with the voting process, and called for calm during the count. A group of “No” members of parliament and some members of the clergy said the vote had been rigged in favour of the “Yes” camp.
They were angry at the use of a new electronic system used to transmit votes from polling stations to the national tallying centre, from where they are broadcast live on television.
The complaints were brushed aside by the electoral authority which said the process was meant to improve transparency. There were long queues at polling stations across the country, especially in the Rift Valley centres of Eldoret and Nakuru that were at the centre of the violence in 2008.
Turnout was reported to be low in the poor, arid northeast of the country.
If the law were to fail, Kenya would retain the current constitution bequeathed by former colonial power Britain. A previous attempt to change the constitution through a referendum in 2005 failed.
William Ruto, a cabinet minister based in the Rift Valley who is leading “No” campaigners angry about clauses related to land ownership, said he would accept the outcome.
“This is an historic moment in our country and I’m sure Kenyans will make the right decision,” he told reporters in his constituency.
