video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) The death toll in Kenya's restive coastal region rose to at least 17 on Monday (March 4) in two attacks on police by machete-wielding men hours before voting began in a tense presidential election. Kenyan authorities suspect the attacks were carried out by members of the coastal separatist group MRC (Mombasa Republican Council) who had threatened to disrupt voting if their demand for secession of the Indian Ocean coastal strip was not met. The attackers are reported to have ambushed a security unit early Monday morning, killing four officers before rampaging through a voting centre located in a local secondary school, killing more security personnel deployed to guard voting material. A sign left on the ground reads: "MRC. Coast is not Kenya. We don't want elections. We want our own country." This year's election race has come down to a high-stakes head-to-head between two candidates, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.