World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga, who lost the presidential election, speaks to the media in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, March 9. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

The son of Kenya's founding father, Uhuru Kenyatta, was named the winner of the country's presidential election with 50.07 per cent of the vote on Saturday, but his opponent said Kenya's democracy was on trial after what he said were multiple failures in the election's integrity.

Supporters of Kenyatta, a man accused by an international court of helping to orchestrate the vicious violence that marred the nation's last vote, flooded the streets, celebrating in a parade of red, his campaign's colour.

Refusing to concede defeat, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the election process experienced multiple failures as he announced plans to petition the Supreme Court. Odinga asked for calm and for Kenyans to love one another, a call that may help prevent a repeat of the 2007-08 violence in which more than 1,000 people were killed and that brought Kenya to the edge of civil war.

Kenyatta's slim margin of victory increases the focus on a multitude of electoral failures that occurred during the six-day voting and counting process. His margin of victory was just 4,099 votes out of 12.3 million cast.