The Kenyan government is reported to have suspended all live broadcasts as violence erupted again on the news of the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki who was today declared the winner of a poll marked by vote rigging allegations.

The elections chief Samuel Kivuitu, who read the result on live television after other media were expelled from the main vote headquarters, said Kibaki beat Raila Odinga by 231,728 votes in the closest race in Kenya’s history.

President Kibaki was swiftly sworn in at State House. “We have done our nation proud and set a good example for the rest of the continent,” Mr Kibaki said.

Within minutes of the result, black smoke was billowing from Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slum, where thousands of people have been on the streets for the past two days shouting “Kibaki must go!” and claiming the vote has been rigged.

Violence around the country has killed at least 15 people since Saturday, authorities said.

Earlier today, Mr Odinga had called on Mr Kibaki to concede and asked for a recount, saying the electoral commission “cannot possibly address the multiple levels of fraud administered by this administration”. Mr Kibaki’s camp urged patience for the official results and accused Mr Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement of being behind the violence.

The disputed campaign comes in one of the most developed countries in Africa, with a booming tourism industry and one of the continent’s highest growth rates. Many observers saw the campaign as perhaps the greatest test yet of this young, multiparty democracy and raised grave concerns as the process descended into violence.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the chief European Union election monitor, said the Electoral Commission of Kenya “has not succeeded in establishing the credibility of the tallying process to the satisfaction of all parties and candidates.”

Mr Kivuitu, the electoral commission chairman, acknowledged there had been problems, including a constituency where voter turnout added up to 115 per cent and another where a candidate ran away with ballot papers.

Supporters of 76-year-old Mr Kibaki say he has turned Kenya’s moribund economy into an East African powerhouse, with an average growth rate of 5 per cent and a booming tourism industry. He won by a landslide in 2002, ending 24 years in power by the notoriously corrupt Daniel arap Moi, who was constitutionally barred from extending his term.

But Mr Kibaki’s anti-graft campaign has largely been seen as a failure, and the country still struggles with tribalism and poverty. After the opposition took most of the parliamentary seats, he may find it difficult to rule.

Mr Odinga, a fiery 62-year-old former political prisoner, promised change and help for the poor. His main constituency is Kibera, home to at least 700,000 people who live in extreme poverty and the scene of many of Saturday’s riots. In recent months he has made it a priority to reach out to the country’s middle class and businessmen, many of whom belong to Mr Kibaki’s tribe, the Kikuyu. Mr Odinga belongs to the Luo tribe.

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