The commercial Kenya Television Network reported that President Moi had collected 1.9 million votes, with 163 of the 210 constituencies counted, compared with 1.6 million for his closest challenger and former ally, Mr Mwai Kibaki, of the Democratic Party of Kenya. All sides in this chaotic election have claimed bungling by the electoral commission was deliberately contrived to favor their enemies. Many polling stations opened late or not at all on Monday, forcing a second day of voting. But even if the elections had been conducted honestly the late Mr Makasembo's story illustrates why Kenyan democracy would still be deeply flawed. Mr Makasembo posthumously topped the poll because his name appeared on the ballot paper beside the tractor symbol of Mr Raila Odinga's National Development Party.
Symbols are important in a country where one in three people are illiterate.
Mr Odinga is a member of the Luo tribe, the second largest in Kenya, and like all major Kenyan parties, his party is little more than an ethnic caucus. Migori town is in the Luo heartland of Nyanza Province. In other words, had the party nominated a dead donkey in Mr Makasembo's stead it, too, would have cantered home to victory. In fact, the party eventually took every seat on the Migori town council. Ethnic and regional considerations dominate Kenyan politics to the exclusion of all else.