In Pictures

In Pictures: Kenya poll run-up

Fearing a return of violence after the upcoming election, Kenyans are fleeing the cities for safer grounds.

Kisumu residents watch the presidential debate in a barbershop. Kenya(***)s third largest city, the stronghold of candidate Raila Odinga, erupted in violence after it was announced Odinga had lost the 2007 vote.

By Roopa Gogineni

As Kenyans prepare to go the polls in general elections on Monday, March 4, many here fear the return of the violence which marred the 2007 vote.

The December 2007 vote saw President Mwai Kibaki edge out his rival, Raila Odinga, in an election largely seen as rigged.

The controversial vote-tallying process sparked the most serious violent protests since the country’s independence, in which more than 1,100 were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

While hoping for a peaceful vote, Kenyans are also bracing themselves for the worst.

Fearing a repeat of the last election crisis, many Kenyans are preemptively leaving cities.

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Winnie Kashoka, a Kikuyu shopkeeper in the Luo-dominated city of Kisumu, will return to her hometown of Nyeri before the election results are announced. After the last vote her store was looted and she fled town for several months.

Overnight buses to Kisumu leave from a downtown station in Nairobi. Bus fares increase steeply before holidays and during election season in Kenya.

Residents in the Fort Jesus neighborhood of Kibera constructed high walls to secure their homes inside.

Suitcases are transported to the Machakos bus station in Nairobi.

An overnight bus waits for passengers at the Olympic bus depot in Kibera.

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A campaign poster for presidential candidate Raila Odinga hangs in a hair salon in Kibera. The slum is part of Odinga(***)s constituency and was hard hit by violence after the last elections.

Amina, a Nubian woman living in Kibera, will stay during the elections. Nubians were the original settlers of Kibera, now one of Nairobi(***)s largest slums.

Minibuses, known as "matatus" in Swahili, leave from downtown Nairobi to upcountry destinations all over Kenya. In the days before the election, many Nairobi residents leave town for their ancestral homelands.

Schools in Kibera are closing for at least one week during the elections.