TIMELINE: Recent events in Kenya
(Reuters) - Kenyans voted on Thursday in presidential and parliamentary polls preceded by violence and soured by delays and charges from the main opposition challenger that the government was plotting to rig the result.
President Mwai Kibaki, 76, is vying for the top job with former ally Raila Odinga, 62, who is determined to realize a long-held dream of leading the region's top economy.
Here is a chronology of Mwai Kibaki's presidency:
December 27, 2002 - Former Vice President Kibaki, candidate of the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), wins a presidential election on pledges to deliver a new constitution within 100 days.
-- The victory ends Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule and the Kenya African National Union's (KANU) four decades in power.
January 15, 2003 - Kibaki appoints John Githongo as Kenya's first anti-corruption adviser.
November 22 - International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumes lending after three-year gap, saying the new government has shown commitment to end corruption.
December 21 - Moi is granted immunity from prosecution on corruption charges.
March 15, 2004 - Government withdraws from a conference convened to write a new constitution after most delegates vote to trim presidential powers.
February 7, 2005 - Githongo quits in a damaging development for Kibaki's fight against graft.
July 22 - Parliament votes to keep a strong presidency in a proposed new constitution, the first complete overhaul since independence from Britain in 1963. The vote leads to deepening divisions in the ruling coalition and triggers rioting in the capital.
November 22 - Kibaki suffers humiliating defeat when voters reject the new constitution in a referendum; he fires his government the next day.
December 7 - Kibaki names a new cabinet. The next day, three ministers and 17 assistant ministers reject their appointments.
December 9 - Twenty-six of 29 cabinet ministers are finally sworn in and three refuse to appear. However, two reverse their decision and are sworn in on December 14.
February 1, 2006 - Finance Minister David Mwiraria resigns over a multi-million dollar corruption scandal. He says he is innocent.
June 3 - Key ministers from Kibaki's ruling coalition, including Vice President Moody Awori, break away to form a new party, the National Rainbow Coalition-Kenya (NARC-Kenya).
August 7 - NARC-Kenya wins three out of five parliamentary seats left vacant by the death of five legislators in a plane crash in April.
August 22 - The government agrees to opposition calls for parts of the constitution to be amended ahead of 2007 elections.
November 28 - KANU splits over a proposal to join the main opposition alliance Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
February 17, 2007 - Opposition threatens to mobilize the masses to stop elections if its demands for constitutional reform, promised by Kibaki in December 2002, were not met.
September 16 - Kibaki, who had been without a party since the demise of the National Rainbow Coalition in 2006, announces candidacy on the ticket of Party of National Unity (PNU), a new alliance he created as his re-election vehicle.
October 22 - Kibaki dissolves parliament, starting the election countdown.
December 27 - Some 14 million eligible voters go to the polls in Kenya's presidential and parliamentary elections.
(Writing by Jijo Jacob; Editing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
