Uhuru Kenyatta appears to win Kenya presidential election

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kenya's Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta appears to have won the presidential election by the tightest of margins, provisional results indicate, BBC News reported.

After all the votes were counted he had polled 50.03% of the vote, 4,109 votes over the threshold required for outright victory.

Rival candidate Raila Odinga is set to file a legal challenge if he loses.

One of Odinga's aides said the candidate had "no intention" of conceding defeat.

Salim Lone told the Daily Nation newspaper: "The level of the failures in the system makes it very difficult to believe it was a credible result, and if Uhuru is declared president, Raila will go to court."

Both candidates have complained of irregularities during the course of the count, since the election.

Kenyatta won 6,173,433 votes out of a total of 12,338,667, well ahead of the prime minister, who polled 5,340,546 - or 43.28% of the vote.

Kenyatta's Jubilee Coalition party said it was "proud and honored for the trust" bestowed on it, adding that it had taken a message to the people and that "we are grateful to the people of Kenya for accepting this message".

Early on Saturday, March 9, small groups of Kenyatta supporters celebrated in Nairobi, hooting car horns and singing.

If Kenyatta is confirmed by Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), he could face difficult relations with Western countries.

He faces trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in July for crimes against humanity.

He is accused of fuelling communal violence after the 2007 election that saw more than 1,000 people killed and 600,000 forced from their homes.