Kenyan opposition launches election bid

By Wangui Kanina and Andrew Cawthorne

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Dancing and singing in a Nairobi park, tens of thousands of Kenyan opposition supporters held a raucous election campaign launch on Saturday buoyed by recent polls putting their leader ahead of President Mwai Kibaki.

At an alternative rally in Kenya's third city, Nakuru, the 75-year-old president urged voters to give him a second five-year term in the December vote thanks to measures like his introduction of free primary education.

"You can list all the good things you have seen," Kibaki told the crowd. "Let the work continue, I am now asking you for a second term. When I finish I will go home and farm, and you will be able to elect a young man of your choice."

Having overtaken Kibaki in polls for the first time in recent days, opposition leader Raila Odinga launched the campaign of his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) at a far larger gathering in Nairobi's Uhuru (Freedom) Park.

Four surveys have given Odinga, a charismatic former political prisoner, between 47 and 43 percent ratings, versus Kibaki's range of 42-34, in what is shaping into an intriguing race for stewardship of east Africa's largest economy.

Thousands of ODM supporters poured into Nairobi on buses and foot, decked in orange, to throng Uhuru Park. City-centre traffic was halted by youths dancing in the street.

"It's time for change, and no one can stop us. Kikuyus, go home to your farms!" shouted one excited youth George Kaseje.

Kibaki comes from Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu, and many perceive the opposition party as an alliance against it from other ethnic groups, particularly the Luo and Luyha.