Kenyan opposition set for landslide win - poll

Kenya’s main opposition alliance holds a clear lead in the run-up to December 27 general election in which it hopes to break the ruling party’s 39-year grip on power.

An opinion poll today gave 68.2% of the vote to Mwai Kabaki, the presidential candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition or NARC.

Another 21.4% said they would vote for Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta and hand-picked candidate of outgoing President Daniel arap Moi and his Kenya African National Union.

The poll indicated that NARC would also win a clear majority in the 224 seat Parliament.

KANU, which has been the ruling party in Kenya since independence from Britain in 1963, won 107 seats in the last elections in 1997.

But because Moi, who is constitutionally obliged to step down after serving two elected terms, insisted that Kenyatta become KANU’s standard bearer, the party has been beset by unprecedented defections.