Kenyan election results

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki won Thursday's closely-fought election, the electoral commission has declared.

The announcement came after opposition leader Raila Odinga accused Mr Kibaki of electoral fraud and called for a full re-assessment of the results.

Opposition protesters began riots in the capital Nairobi, just minutes after the announcement.

Africans should learn to rule by respecting democratic principles. This can make it easy for their countries to have fair elections. Ruling through nepotism and corruption has its effect in elections as each side tries to use whatever means to get elected including vote rigging and violence.

Election campaigns in Kenya were marred by relative violence to become even worse after the result announcement with about one hundred deaths and extensive damages to property. It's no wonder if the results are controversial and disputed by all side in the absence of fair play by all sides to get undisputed results.

In Kenya, although it was a good step to have elections to give power to the voice of people, the delay in announcing the results has put in question the fairness of the elections as the defeated party sees the delay as a way to rig votes and not to count them.
For the election commission to hold talks with the parties and international election monitors means voting was flawed and a compromise is needed by the parties. This means people's choice at the ballot boxes can be set aside to satisfy the political forces in the country. Elections will be for many just a sham.

It’s time for African leaders during elections to admit defeat, if they haven’t got enough votes, just at the close of polling stations and to reassure their supporters of a better day. Each claiming victory in elections is in itself an invitation to unrest as each seeks their supporters to impose themselves at the expense of political and social stability.

In African elections, the accustomed use of terms like vote rigging and corruption just reinforces the idea that many African haven’t yet reached political maturity and their political level is still as low their economic and social one. It seems that in Africa to be a leader on should have an armed force behind. Civilian vote is used just as a façade to celebrate an event with dances and speeches and not to count it or use it as an account of who should be in power.