President Uhuru Kenyatta urged Kenyans on Monday (August 7), the eve of a presidential election, to shun intimidation and violence and stand together, no matter what the result.

Opinion polls put Kenyatta neck-and-neck with opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose call for street protests after problems with the election count in 2007 triggered ethnic violence in which 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 displaced.

Fears of violence this time have prompted many to leave their homes for their ethnic heartlands.

In an address on national television, Kenyatta asked voters to turn out in large numbers and to go home immediately after casting their ballots.

He urged them, above all, to reject intimidation, violence, or “any attempt to divide us”.

He said, “We are all Kenyans. Our mothers and fathers all struggled so that we would all have a better Kenya and a better future. They gave us the greatest gift any son or daughter could ask for. They gave us a home. They gave us our beautiful nation. They were the architects of our future, and that stewardship of trust has now passed on to us.

“We must not, and I repeat, we must not disappoint them. No matter the result of this election, we must stand together as one people. Above all, we must reject intimidation. We must reject violence or any attempt to divide us.

“Kenya is the only home we have. It is the only home we know. Our children look to us to show them the way, to pass to them a country that is in a better state than that that was left to us. We must not disappoint the founders of this nation and, equally, we must not betray our children.”