Preliminary results show that a majority of Kenyans have backed a proposed new constitution in Wednesday's referendum.Roughly 65 per cent of voters have said "yes" to the new constitution, with some 4.5 million ballots counted so far. More than 12 million people were eligible to vote in the referendum, which took place amid tight security aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly violence that followed Kenya's 2007 election.

Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, said the vote was peaceful, and predicted that the constitution would be approved.

"We are making history. Many of us were not here when we got the first constitution after independence, and it does not suit us,'' said Sam Ochieng, a businessman who voted in Kibera, a neighbourhood in Nairobi.

Initial results are expected within a few hours, with the final tally due to be released sometime on Thursday.

Queues of several hundred people had already formed at several polling stations in Nairobi and elsewhere in the country when voting opened at 6:00am (0300 GMT).

The new law addresses corruption, political patronage, land grabbing and tribalism, which have plagued Kenya since it won independence in 1963.