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Kenya Opposition: Raila Odinga Winner of Presidential Election


Supporters of Kenyan opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga throw back a tear gas canister at Kenyan security forces in the Mathare slum of Nairobi Wednesday , Aug. 9, 2017. Odinga alleges that hackers manipulated the Tuesday election results which appear to show President Uhuru Kenyatta has a wide lead over Odinga. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Supporters of Kenyan opposition leader and presidential candidate Raila Odinga throw back a tear gas canister at Kenyan security forces in the Mathare slum of Nairobi Wednesday , Aug. 9, 2017. Odinga alleges that hackers manipulated the Tuesday election results which appear to show President Uhuru Kenyatta has a wide lead over Odinga. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's opposition on Thursday demanded that veteran leader Raila Odinga be declared winner of the presidential election, even though official counting of the ballots gives incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta a commanding lead.

Musalia Mudavadi, a senior official in the opposition coalition, told reporters that information from "confidential sources" at the election commission showed Odinga had secured victory by just under 300,000 votes, but provided no evidence.

Minutes later, hundreds of Odinga supporters, mainly young men, poured onto the streets of the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in celebration. At least one truck of anti-riot police followed them, a Reuters witness said.

Odinga has said provisional results were "fictitious" and a product of a hacked system, but he has again put forward no evidence.

International observers on Thursday praised the handling of the election and the European Union mission said it had seen no sign of manipulation.

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