Kenya's Kibaki faces tough fight in parliament

By Wangui Kanina

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The first sitting of Kenya's newly elected parliament on Tuesday is expected to be a stormy affair as legislators face off following disputed presidential elections that threw the country into turmoil.

The political crisis in east Africa's biggest economy has killed 500 people since President Mwai Kibaki's re-election at December 27 polls which his rival, Raila Odinga, says were rigged.

Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) won 99 seats in parliament to 43 for Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU), meaning Kibaki will have to try to get bills approved by legislators who believe his government is illegitimate.

"It will be a battleground where all manner of wars are going to be fought," Mutakha Kangu, a political analyst and constitutional lawyer, told Reuters.

"There is a lot of anger and that is what will be driving everything. It is very worrying for Kenyans."

International monitors have expressed concern at problems with Kenya's presidential election, which included the inflation of tallies and the disappearance of polling station paperwork.

But the parliamentary ballot, held on the same day, has essentially received a clean bill of health.

"In the parliamentary round we can say yes, they were successful," said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the chief European Union observer at the polls.