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Allegations of corruption -- including voter intimidation and violence -- have been central campaign themes, with both Kibaki and challenger Raila Odinga vowing to end the graft that has scared off foreign investment and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
"I have not even milked my cow because today we are putting our country first," said Mary Muthoni Gikiri, who was waiting to vote Thursday at a polling station in Kibaki's hometown of Othaya, some 125 miles from the capital, Nairobi.
In Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa and Odinga's main constituency in Nairobi, thousands of people were lining up to vote amid tight security. A handful of young men were smashing windows, saying they were not listed on the voting register.
"This time around Kenyans are not the same," said Harun Owade, a 30-year-old mechanic who had been waiting in line to vote since 3:30 a.m. in Kibera, home to at least 700,000 people in a maze of potholed tracks and ramshackle dwellings. "We cannot be tricked. We will put the politicians to the test."
Kibaki, 76, unseated the 24-year ruling party in 2002 on an anti-corruption campaign, prompting some Kenyans to start making citizen's arrests of police who demanded bribes. But while he has been credited with helping boost this East African nation's economy, his anti-graft campaign has been seen as a failure.
Odinga, a former political prisoner under Kibaki's predecessor Daniel arap Moi, casts himself as a candidate of change. But he, too, has been accused of failing to do enough to help his constituents during 15 years as an MP.
On the eve of the vote, authorities said opposition supporters had stoned three police officers to death in western Kenya, accusing them of being part of a government conspiracy to rig the elections.
Kibaki has denied all allegations of rigging, and some 30,000 foreign and national observers are monitoring the vote.
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 "By and large what I have observed is an orderly process with enthusiastic voters," said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, chief European Union election monitor in Kenya. "I hope it will stay this way."
With its Indian Ocean beaches, fabled game parks and booming tourism industry, Kenya in many ways is flourishing.
The country is leading projects to link eastern Africa with Europe with a high-tech undersea telecommunications cable, and a French-led consortium recently won a bid to buy 51 percent of the state-owned telecommunications company.
But the benefits for Kenyans, and the attraction for foreigners, are hampered by corruption.
For many observers, however, the very fact that the race is a toss-up is a sign of how far Kenya has come in 15 years of multiparty democracy. An incumbent has never before faced a credible challenge.
When Kibaki ran in 2002, then-President Daniel Arap Moi was constitutionally barred from extending his 24 years in power. Moi won in 1992 and 1997 in elections marked by allegations of vote-rigging.
Kenyans also will elect 210 members of parliament and more than 2,000 local councillors Thursday.
[Associated
Press; By TOM MALITI]
Associated Press Writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Katharine Houreld and Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.
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