Uhuru pledges to unite Kenyans

affiliations and move the country forward,” he said and reiterated that he was ready to work with Cord and other parties.
Kenyatta was speaking in Gatundu asked the newly elected leaders to embrace dialogue and offer selfless service to the nation. He also congratulated Kenyans for maintaining peace during the elections.
“We have the will and the capacity to move our country to the next level in economic development and make it the envy of all in the continent if we are united,” he said.
He thanked the Gatundu residents for voting for him overwhelmingly and said his victory was not possible without God’s grace.
He also commended religious leaders for their role in praying for peace.Kenyans called Sunday for reconciliation after a disputed presidential election, but calm prevailed in the country the day after results were declared, in striking contrast to the aftermath of the 2007 polls.
However, Kenyatta’s main rival Raila Odinga, has vowed to challenge the result in court.
“The country is split right down the middle on tribal and economic lines,” the Standard newspaper said in an editorial, calling on president-elect Kenyatta, from one of the continent’s richest families, to mend the divisions.
Kenyatta faces trial at the Hague-based International Criminal Court over his alleged role in the violence after the bitterly contested election in 2007 that sparked one of the worst bouts of ethnic bloodletting in Kenya.
Odinga said he would mount a legal challenge alleging “massive tampering” during last Monday’s vote, but appealed for calm.
Kenyatta was declared winner by the slimmest of margins — 50.07 percent against Odinga’s 43.31 percent.
“Any violence now could destroy the country forever, and that would not serve anyone’s interests,” Odinga said.
Odinga — in his third failed attempt at the top job — said he would respect the decision of the Supreme Court even if it ruled against him.
Top officials said all measures were in force to prevent a repeat of 2007.
The Sunday Nation paper said the conciliatory tone adopted by Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto in their acceptance speeches was “certainly a good start toward confronting the deep ethnic divisions in the country brought about by political competition”.
“We have demonstrated that we learned from the 2007 post-election violence that claimed the lives of 1,300 people and said ‘never again’,” it said.
Odinga has seven days starting yesterday in which to file his complaint and the court has two weeks to hand down its decision.
Kenyatta has offered “my older brother” Odinga an olive branch, telling thousands of his party loyalists he wanted to work with him “in moving our nation forward.”
He also called on his celebrating supporters to be “modest in our victory.”
Anastasia Ngina, a Nairobi church goer in her mid-fifties, said she voted for Odinga but accepted his defeat.
“Kenyatta is the elected president and we all have to support him, whether we voted for him or not because the most important thing is that we are all Kenyans,” she told AFP.
Sister Stella, a nun at the same parish, said mass at the church had started with a play whose theme was “Don’t let this kind of election divide us”.
“The violence of 2007-2008 and the wanton loss of both human lives and property taught all of us invaluable and enduring lessons,” said Ahmednasir Adullahi, a lawyer and publisher.
President elect Kenyatta continues to receive messages of goodwill after being declared the winner of the recently concluded presidential poll.
Other world leaders who congratulated Uhuru Kenyatta for being elected Kenya’s president included US secretary of state John Kerry, South African President Jacob Zuma and the European Union. In a statement the United Kingdom thanked the Kenyan people for conducting a peaceful election. — nation.co.ke/AFP/kbc.co.ke.