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Incumbent wins in Kenya

Riots break out as results are announced after the disputed election.

NAIROBI, Kenya - Hand on a Bible, President Mwai Kibaki was sworn in for a second term Sunday in a serene ceremony on the State House lawn, declaring, "We have done our nation proud."

Outside the gates, the slums of Kenya's capital exploded in violence. Enraged youths torched homes and shouted "Kibaki must go!" Others waved machetes in the air as buses and shops burned.

At least 15 people were killed as Kibaki opponents rioted across the country, accusing the government of stealing the vote.

"This country is going to turn into a war zone," said Elisha Kayugira, who ran through the Kibera shantytown searching for his sister as columns of black smoke curled above the maze of shacks and winding dirt roads.

The government suspended live television broadcasts.

"These are our guns," said 24-year-old Cliff Owino, holding up a handful of rocks in Mathare, another Nairobi slum where young men set up roadblocks and built bonfires. "But a voting card is our atomic weapon."

The bloodshed was a stunning turn of events in one of the most developed countries in Africa, with a booming tourism industry and one of the continent's highest growth rates. Many observers saw the campaign as the greatest test yet of this young, multiparty democracy and expressed great disappointment as the process descended into chaos.

Raila Odinga, the firebrand opposition candidate who had been leading early results and public opinion polls, said the dispute could trigger a political crisis. He compared the country to Ivory Coast - the once stable West African nation where a 2002 coup sparked a civil war.

Elections chief Samuel Kivuitu, who read the results on live television after other media were expelled from the main vote headquarters Sunday, said Kibaki beat Odinga by 231,728 votes in the closest race in Kenya's history.

But even Kivuitu had acknowledged problems with the count, including a constituency where voter turnout added up to 115 percent and another where a candidate ran away with ballot papers.

Kibaki was sworn in almost immediately after the results were announced.

"We have done our nation proud and set a good example for the rest of the continent," Kibaki said. "With the general election now behind us, it is time for healing and reconciliation among all Kenyans."

But any attempt at reconciliation was absent in the slums, where tribal clashes raged into the night and youths shouted ethnic slurs.

[Last modified December 31, 2007, 01:04:49]