Groups of hundreds accept queued throughout Kenya to vote in the aboriginal elections back baleful indigenous abandon that dead added than 1,200 humans afterward acknowledged acclamation in 2007.
Voters accept waited for added than six hours at a time to casting ballots for a president, senators, associates of parliament, canton governors and accumulation to the anew formed canton assembly.
Festus Mogae, above admiral of Botswana who is arch the aggregation of assemblage for the election, said he is so far "impressed" by the amount of humans axis out to vote.
"All I see is enthusiasm", Mogae told Al Jazeera from Nairobi.
The two rivals for the presidency, Raila Odinga, approachable prime minister, and Uhuru Kenyatta, agent prime minister, accept about vowed that on Monday there would be no echo of the violence, which displaced added than 600,000 people.
On the eve of the election, Mwai Kibaki, the approachable admiral ,appealed for a peaceful vote.
"I aswell accomplish a amorous appeal for all of us to vote peacefully. Indeed, accord is a cornerstone of our development," Kibaki, barred from gluttonous a third five-year term, told Kenyans in a televised abode afore polling day.
But there were abandoned instances of violence.
Police in the littoral city-limits of Mombasa repored night time raids by machete-wielding gangs who ambused admiral afore the acclamation clearly opened .
At atomic 13 humans were dead in an adventure in the littoral city, including six police, Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow letters from Mombasa.
Sources appear that it was the plan of the Mombasa Republican Council, a secessionist accumulation on Kenya's coast.
Al Jazeera's Peter Greste, advertisement from Kisumu, said the bearings in Mombasa cannot be extrapolated to the blow of the nation.
There is "a actual airy bearings on the coast. Mombasa is a very, actual specific situation".
In Kilifi, a assemblage assaulted aegis armament at a academy which was getting acclimated as a voting centre. At atomic four admiral were killed.
With 14 actor registered voters branch to the polls, a badge agent said that 99,000 admiral accept been deployed to abstain a echo of baleful abandon in December 2007.
The badge said backward Sunday that abyss were planning to dress in badge uniforms and agitate voting in some locations.
Long queues
Voters on Monday will casting six ballots for the president, parliament, governors, senators, councillors and a appropriate women's list.
About 23,000 observers, including 2,600 all-embracing monitors, will be deployed, according to the Independent Balloter and Boundaries Agency (IEBC).
But watchdogs such as Human Rights Watch accept warned that the accident of renewed political abandon is "perilously high." Abounding Kenyans accept larboard the cities to delay out the vote in their home villages.
Trials are accepted to alpha afterwards this year at the All-embracing Criminal Court for Kenyatta and his active mate, William Ruto. If they win, the admiral and carnality admiral could be absent on balloon for years.
Al Jazeera's James Brownsell, advertisement from Kibera, one of Nairobi's bigger slums, said that bags accept angry up there to vote and that the ample queues accept prompted fears for the bloom and able-bodied getting of voters.
"I've been actuality added than four hours," a aborigine who articular herself as Evelyn told Al Jazeera from the average of the queue. "I am athirst and I am weak. I anticipate I will aside here."
'Peace, adulation and unity'
Tens of bags of affair loyalists roared their abutment as Kenyatta and Odinga captivated aggressive rallies in axial Nairobi on Saturday in the closing hours of campaigning.
Both men accept accurate aplomb of accepting an complete majority, all-important to abstain a second-round runoff, although with eight candidates in the chase abounding apprehend a added vote next month.
"I wish to affiance you that we will change Kenya for the better," said Kenyatta, dancing on date alongside Ruto.
"Bring even the ailing to vote," apprenticed Odinga in turn, afterwards absolution a white affable to symbolise peace.
The balloter agency will accept seven canicule to advertise the results.
The 2007-2008 abandon apparent boundless disenchantment with the political class, abysmal affiliated capacity and burst Kenya's angel as a alarm of bounded stability.
More checks are in abode this time to absolute vote rigging, while a new architecture devolves admiral and has fabricated the poll beneath of a winner-take-all race.
Kenya's neighbours are watching nervously, afterwards their economies acquainted the shockwaves if abandon 5 years ago shut down barter routes active through east Africa's better economy. Some landlocked states accept stockpiled ammunition and added materials.
Adding to acclamation tensions, al-Shabab fighters, aggressive Kenyan peacekeeping troops in Somalia, issued a buried blackmail canicule afore the vote.
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