Kenyans Spar Over Ballot Counting : Election: Weary officials, candidates monitor slow tabulation. President Moi heads for a narrow victory.

NAIROBI, Kenya —  Several dozen bleary-eyed Kenyans, after 54 sleepless hours, ushered in the New Year today under dim gas lamps at the Nairobi Railway Club here, counting ballots in a desperate bid to protect this country’s experiment with multi-party democracy.

Alex Nganga, an election agent for one opposition candidate, vowed to keep the ballot boxes in his sight until final results are known. But, in the cavernous room beneath the ever-present photograph of President Daniel Arap Moi, he had grave doubts about Kenya’s first taste of democracy in 26 years.

“I stay until we have a solution,” said Nganga, whose candidate appeared headed for defeat against Moi’s candidate. But, he added, “It has been very disappointing. We wish we could have an election like you have in America, with civilized people who accept that when you are defeated, you are defeated.”

In scores of counting stations across Kenya on Thursday, election officials and candidates shuffled ballot papers amid allegations of ballot-box stuffing, miscounting and corruption. Foreign election observers expressed concern that every hour’s delay in tabulating the vote was increasing the chance of fraud--and of a popular uprising against the election results.

A clear picture of the election results began to emerge late Thursday, though, and it suggested that tumultuous political change is in store for the latest African nation to eschew one-party rule in favor of multi-party democracy.

Moi, forced to abandon the one-party system when Western donors suspended $350 million in aid to his country, appeared headed for a narrow victory. But it was a weak performance, which indicated widespread dissatisfaction with the president and his party, the Kenya African National Union.

And for the first time in his 14 years of one-party rule, Moi will face significant--perhaps overpowering--opposition in the Parliament he has long controlled with an iron fist.

Fourteen of Moi’s Cabinet ministers have lost their seats in Parliament so far, and most were defeated by landslides. With 72% of the country’s 188 constituencies reporting, Moi had 39% of the vote, compared to 27% for his nearest challenger, Kenneth Matiba.

Matiba, 60, of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-Asili, is a wealthy businessman who launched the campaign for multi-party democracy here two years ago--and was imprisoned by Moi for 11 months without trial in 1990. Matiba plans to use his new support base, along with other opposition leaders, to make life difficult for Moi in a new administration.

“Let it be understood by all the authorities, and I tell Moi especially, that the time is gone when he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it,” Matiba said Thursday. “People in Kenya are ready for proper democracy. They are determined that Moi shall not rule Kenya again.”

The four major opposition candidates together had gathered 61% of the vote, robbing Moi of his near-total lock on political power. The voting indicated that many Kenyans agree with opposition leaders that Moi has been guilty of widespread human rights abuses and has used the levers of power to damage the businesses of his opponents and line the pockets of members of his own Kalenjin ethnic group.

The election has enlarged the deep ethnic divisions in Kenya. Moi had managed to maintain power by co-opting members of other ethnic groups, notably the Kikuyu, who account for 21% of Kenyans, and the Luo, the country’s second-largest group. The Kikuyus are particularly influential in business.

But most Kikuyus have defected from the ruling party and have supported Matiba or another Kikuyu, Mwai Kibaki, the Democratic Party candidate who has collected 15% of the vote. The Luo leader, Oginga Odinga, had 19% of the vote for president.

Foreign and Kenyan election observers were reluctant Thursday to make final determinations on the election’s fairness. Observers have criticized the campaign, accusing Moi’s government of harassing opposition parties, denying them time on state-run radio and breaking up party rallies.

The voting Tuesday was fraught with irregularities. In one precinct, an American observer found 5,700 voters with the same mailing address on the registration books. Another American witnessed government election agents buying registration cards from voters waiting in line.

International observers also cited worries about the painstakingly slow vote counting in places such as the Railway Club in Nairobi.

There the counting, under heavy police guard, began Tuesday night. For two days and two nights, 40 clerks counted ballots, as dozens of agents for the parties watched vigilantly. Party agents interrupted the process frequently, to complain that clerks were miscounting ballots. Then, Thursday afternoon, officials found an extra ballot box in a room a few feet from the main counting area.

Tempers quickly began to fray among the candidates and officials.

The ruling party’s parliamentary candidate, Amin Walji, had been leading in the counting when the box was found. But Walji’s opponent, Wanguhu Nganga, a Nairobi tour operator, already was charging that the counting clerks had buried his votes in stacks of votes for other candidates.

Finally, Walji agreed to the recount demanded by Nganga. And, as the clock ushered in the New Year, the counting continued.