Kisumu, Kenya, Dec 29 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Protests and looting flared in Kenyan opposition strongholds on Saturday as delays announcing a presidential election result prompted rigging claims in east Africa's economic power.

In western Kisumu city, in the Nyanza homeland of opposition hallenger Raila Odinga, hundreds of angry youths took to the streets, lighting fires, ransacking shops and blocking roads.

Local residents said one person died.

And in Nairobi's biggest slum Kibera, also a hotbed of Odinga support, police deployed as rival ethnic gangs faced off.

"We are demonstrating against the delay in announcing the results. We are sensing a plan by the government to rig the elections. We will not accept this," taxi cyclist Eric Ochieng, 18, told Reuters as smoke rose over Kisumu.

Witnesses said looters in Kisumu were targeting shops belonging to members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe. Nyanza is home to the Luo tribe of Odinga.

In Nairobi's vast Kibera slum, Reuters witnesses said shooting broke out in the morning. A small group of armed police stood between two gangs -- one Luo, the other Kikuyu -- who were brandishing machetes, catapults and clubs.

Odinga, the wealthy heir of a nationalist hero, appeared to have built up a commanding lead over Kibaki following an election on Thursday that was largely peaceful.

But tensions rose on Saturday as results trickling in showed Kibaki narrowing the gap. Opposition activists shouted down election officials at several news conferences, saying the hold-up was part of a government plot to steal victory for Kibaki.

ODINGA LEADING

By 9 a.m. (0600 GMT), the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) had released results from 116 of the 210 constituencies, with Odinga leading by 2,620,547 votes to Kibaki's 2,362,696.

Both Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) demanded the authorities explain the delay.

"I would ask the president himself to step in now and calm the temperature of the country," ODM official Joseph Nyaga told Reuters after another ill-tempered ECK results briefing.

"This is not Nigeria. My request is that they release these results. Don't hold them back. You raise suspicions to a level that they may not contain."

The latest results did not include many constituencies in the Central and Eastern provinces, where Kibaki is expected to dominate in voting that will largely follow tribal lines.

In a statement, PNU said it suspected some parties might be deliberately interfering with the process to "create a false sense of an impending victory for ODM's presidential candidate."

PNU said it expected Kibaki to win by 300,000 to 500,000 votes, based on tallies from its own voting agents.

In unofficial, partial tallies broadcast by Kenyan TV stations, the opposition's lead also narrowed. KTN had Odinga with 3.97 million and the president on 3.58 million, while NTV had Odinga on 3.48 million and Kibaki with 3.24 million.

The ECK says it expects a record turnout for what became Kenya's tightest race since independence from Britain in 1963.

The nation of 36 million, which has held four multi-party polls, of which only two are considered truly democratic.

If Odinga, 62, wins, he would become the first candidate to oust a president in Kenya, which has had only three leaders in four decades of independence.

Kibaki, 76, who entered politics under founding father Jomo Kenyatta, came to power in landmark 2002 elections. Those polls threw out a party that had ruled for 39 years and became synonymous with corruption, oppression and inaction.

bdnews24.com/aj/1434 hrs.