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Countdown starts for Kenya polls
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Eagerly awaited general elections will be held in Kenya on December 27, after which President Daniel arap Moi, who has been in power for 24 years, will step down, officials have announced. "The elections will be on 27 December, 2002. It's a Friday and we are prepared for the elections," Samuel Kivuitu, the chairman of Kenya's electoral commission, told Reuters on Tuesday. Moi dissolved parliament on Friday, beginning the countdown to presidential and parliamentary elections. Under the constitution the next parliament must assemble within three months of the dissolution of the existing assembly. The ruling KANU party is facing a series of defections in an escalating row over who should represent the group in upcoming presidential elections. Moi's handpicked candidate -- Uhuru Kenyatta -- was made the official KANU party nominee earlier this month. But rebels within the party have threatened to break away and form an opposition party ready to fight against Moi's chosen successor. Moi says Kenyatta, son of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, has the qualities to lead Kenya's 30 million people into the future but his opponents say his inexperience would open him to manipulation by Moi. The rebels, known as the Rainbow Alliance, say they will form a new party to contest elections that are scheduled to take place in December. The crisis deepened when a sixth minister resigned from the Kenyan government in protest over Moi's selection process.
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