Riots flare as Kenya's Kibaki takes lead

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Wangui Kanina

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's presidential rivals were neck-and-neck on Saturday with nearly 90 percent of official results counted and accusations of rigging that ignited ethnic violence across the east African nation.

Several people died in the unrest.

As night fell with the election on a knife-edge and further results not due until morning, Kenyans kept off the streets, police manned roadblocks and politicians huddled to strategize.

The latest results showed President Mwai Kibaki grabbing a lead, infuriating supporters of opposition challenger Raila Odinga, who led in early tallies and in most opinion polls in the run-up to Thursday's election.

Odinga's political allies, accusing the government of a plot to rig the result, tried to shout down the head of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) as he read out the figures that gave Kibaki a lead of roughly 120,000 votes.

Amid the confusion, the exasperated chairman then gave only an earlier official tally giving Odinga a 38,000 vote lead.

The commission then announced abruptly that it would stop reporting results for the night, leaving most of Kenya's 36 million people in suspense.

"We are Kenyans, not beasts!" ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu told scores of party agents, politicians and journalists crammed into the Nairobi conference centre ringed by armed guards.

The delays announcing the official results fuelled tensions across the nation, with political parties trading accusations of rigging and riots erupting in most major cities.

Both Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) claimed victory and the leadership of the region's biggest economy for the next five years.

HOMES ABLAZE

Throughout the day, youths from rival tribes fought, looted and burned homes, mostly in opposition strongholds.

Police fired teargas and up to six people died, according to witnesses and local media. The scenes marred what foreign observers had praised as broadly peaceful polls on Thursday.

Britain's foreign minister, David Miliband, called for an end to violence and said it was vital for all Kenyan political leaders to act responsibly and respect democracy.

If Odinga -- a wealthy businessman who paints himself as a champion of the poor -- fulfils a long-held ambition to lead Kenya, Kibaki would become the first of the country's three post-independence leaders to be ejected by the ballot box.