Kenya Switch Is African Milestone

Mwai Kibaki took the oath of office as Kenya's third president from a wheelchair Monday as hundreds of thousands of his supporters roared their approval in a downtown park.

With his right leg in a cast after a Dec. 3 automobile accident, Kibaki pledged to conduct his duties without fear or favor or malice, "so help me God," he said in Kiswahili, the common language of Kenya. He then received a 21-gun salute.

The huge crowd had waited patiently for hours under a hot sun for Kibaki and outgoing President Daniel arap Moi to arrive for the historic transfer, which ended the Kenya African National Union party's four-decade hold on power.

Tens of thousands of Kenyans waving branches and flashing the victory sign with their fingers had gathered in the Nairobi park to witness the swearing-in of Kibaki, whose opposition alliance swept into power three days earlier.

Workers chopped at tall grass with long knives, dabbed white paint on posts and unfolded red carpets as dignitaries, diplomats and visiting heads of state jostled to find seats on the platform that formed an island in a sea of humanity.

Although the Electoral Commission had not released final results by Monday morning — three days after the historic Dec. 27 elections that removed the ruling Kenya African National Union party from four decades of power — provisional results gave Kibaki 63 percent of the vote to 30 percent for his principal rival, Uhuru Kenyatta.

With 122 seats, Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition was guaranteed an absolute majority in the 210-seat elected parliament. Another 12 seats are appointed by parties according to their percentage of the votes.

"We are here to celebrate freedom. We have been tormented for many years. We are here to celebrate a new government," said Eric Akoth, an 18-year-old student waving a placard that proclaimed "youth have faith in Kibaki."

Moi, the 78-year-old former primary school teacher who held sway over Kenya for 24 years as a wily, autocratic leader, handed over office to Kibaki, who had served him as vice president for a decade until 1988.

Moi was constitutionally obliged to step down after his second five-year term under a multiparty system restored in 1991, and he kept his word.

In spite of bureaucratic glitches and unseasonably heavy rains, the elections for president, parliament and more than 2,000 local councilors were described by local and international observers as the most free and fair in Kenya's 39-year history as an independent nation.

The Central Intelligence Agency described the votes in 1992 and 1997 as "marred by violence and fraud, but … viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people."

The presidents of Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia as well as the prime minister of Rwanda and Zanele Mbeki, wife of South African President Thabo Mbeki, witnessed the ceremony.

Kenyans who had gone to their home regions for Christmas traveled in packed buses and minivans to make it back to Nairobi by Monday morning, then walked miles to Uhuru (the Kishwahili word for freedom) Park.

The preparations and the ceremony were broadcast by three television networks — two private stations and the much-maligned state Kenya Broadcasting Corp., the only entity with a nationwide reach which previously served Moi and Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, as propaganda arms.

Jomo Kenyatta is the father of Uhuru Kenyatta.

It was not immediately clear when Kibaki would announce the members of his Cabinet or how long the transition would take. It is the first time the opposition has won in Kenya.

Kenya is a nation about twice the size of Nevada and home to 31 million people.