Wangari Mathai, Kenya's assistant minister for environment and 2004 Noble Peace prize winner, hugs a woman after casting her vote on the proposed constitution at Itithe Primary School polling station in Nyeri district, 135 km from the capital Nairobi, yesterday. - REUTERS
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP):
KENYANS VOTED yesterday in a referendum on a draft constitution that would revise the charter for the first time since the country gained Independence from Britain. But scores said their names were missing from voters' rolls and observers reported cases of suspected vote buying.
As tensions rose over the vote counting, hundreds of people chased anti-riot police from Nairobi's vast Kibera slum, which is a stronghold of a leading opponent of the draft charter.
They also attacked a truck driver they suspected of planning to substitute ballot boxes stuffed with fraudulent votes for the valid boxes.
CURB ABUSE OF POWER
President Mwai Kibaki has said the proposed changes to the charter - which has been in place since 1963 - are designed to curb decades of abuse of power.
But opponents of the draft charter say it would further entrench the president's enormous powers.
Many also see the referendum as a vote on the Kibaki administration, elected in 2002 on a platform of fighting corruption, reforming government, curbing unemployment and improving conditions for Kenyans.
VOTING WENT SMOOTHLY
Kenya is set to hold elections in 2007 and Kibaki, his ministers and lawmakers will stay in office until then under either the current or draft constitution.
But failure to win Kenyans' approval of the revised charter - billed as a government project - could weaken Kibaki's administration.
Seven ministers in his 28-member Cabinet have already opposed the draft constitution.
Kenyans voted at more than 19,000 polling stations across the country, casting ballots marked with a banana for 'yes' and an orange for 'no'.
The country has about 11.6 million registered voters out of a population of 34 million.
Electoral Commission of Kenya spokesman Mani Lemaiyan said voting was peaceful and went smoothly in most parts of the country.
Most polls closed at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). Turnout figures were not immediately available.
