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Kenyans are heading to the polls on Tuesday to select the successor to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Cost of living, high unemployment and rampant corruption have dominated the campaign season, with top presidential candidates Raila Odinga and William Ruto pledging to address the country’s gaping inequality and focusing largely on domestic issues.
The presidential race could be the first in the country’s history to go to a runoff, with polls showing Odinga, a one-time rival of Kenyatta who has since allied with him, and Ruto, the current deputy president who has fallen out with Kenyatta, running neck and neck.
Overall, more than 16,000 candidates are vying for 1,879 elected positions, including members of the Senate, the National Assembly, the County Assembly and governors.
Official results in the country of 53 million, with more than 22 million registered voters, will be announced within a week. Presidential candidates need more than half of all votes, as well as more than 25 percent of votes in over half of the country’s 47 counties, to avoid a runoff.