US non-profit claims Odinga won Kenyan election, not Kibaki

A United States based non-profit called the International Republican Institute is reporting that current Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga won his nations elections held late last year by a margin of 6 points and not by 2 points as claimed by the Kenyan government.

After the election results were initially released weeks of violence ensued which shocked many around the world and left over a thousand Kenyans dead.  A power sharing deal was crafted with the help of Kofi Annan, and incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared president with Odinga assuming the role of Prime Minister.

It’s no surprise then that Odinga recently voiced his opinion that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugagbe should step down and international peace keepers should be sent into the nation to ensure free and fair elections.  Odinga–a member of his nation’s opposition party –knows far too well what Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai is experiencing at the moment.

The International Republican Institute initially didn’t release the results of their exit poll findings because there were concerns about its validity, but yesterday, in Washington, DC, the authors presented their findings:

The pollsters contracted Strategic Research, a veteran Kenyan public-opinion firm, which surveyed voters in each of Kenya’s eight provinces and in 179 out of 210 electoral constituencies. According to their projections, Odinga, who also led Kibaki in pre-election polls, should have received about 58,000 more votes than he was credited with. Kibaki should have received about 356,000 fewer votes.