afrol News, 12 June - Kenya's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) of Prime Minister Raila Odinga has won three of the five parliamentary seats in by-elections held on Wednesday, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) announced.

The rest of the seats were won by President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) in elections went passed off peacefully.

The ODM retained two seats in western Kenya constituencies where the killing of an MP and election of the party's lawmaker, Kenneth Marende, as Speaker of Parliament prompted by-elections. The party also clinched a seat in northern region where the ODM and PNU tied in the disputed 27 December polls.

Mr Kibaki's party won a seat in western Kenya where deadly political violence prevented results from being announced. It also the seat of the killed OMD lawmaker in the capitla Nairobi.

Though the elections and overnight tallying of votes were conducted in a peaceful atomosphere, but some irate youths were prevented from attacking a polling station in Nairobi.

The deaths of two ODM lawmakers - Roads and Home Affairs Assistant Minister, Kipkalya Kones and Loma Laboso - in a Tuesday air crash had left gaps in the East African country's 222-member parliament.

Shortly before the power for control over parliament by the ODM and PNU, the ECK warned politicians to shun "an atmosphere of political and social violence" and "preach peace, tolerance and reconciliation" in a country that is nurturing the wounds of the post-electoral violence, which claimed over 1,000 deaths and displaced thousands.

After months of tedious mediation by the former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Kenya's political leaders had consented to the establishment of a government of national unity. This culminated in the appointment of Mr Odinga as Prime Minister and sharing of powers.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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