Quotes of the Day

The stern face of president Daniel arap Moi has stared out at Kenyans for more than 24 years. Framed on office and shop walls, pictured on every banknote and coin and ubiquitous on the nightly news, the steely gaze hints at his rule: paternal, omnipotent and tough. Don't question the chief, the stare seems to say, because I'm everywhere.

But Moi, 78, is constitutionally obliged to step down at the upcoming presidential and parliamentary election on Dec. 27, and his country is more than ready for the change. In the past few years of economic decline and rampant corruption — and especially in the run-up to the election — Kenyans have begun to poke fun at the old man in ways that used to be unthinkable. "What you are seeing is the reaction of people who are tired," says Godfrey "Gado" Mwampembwa, a popular cartoonist who began lampooning the President in 1992, when Kenya held its first real multiparty election. "Before then you couldn't touch him. Now all people want to talk about is the end of Moi. They're telling him, 'Look, you've been here too long. We need someone new.'"

Sadly, someone new may mean more of the same. While Kenyans worry about their future, both the ruling party and the opposition are fielding candidates with strong links to the past. Moi's choice to lead the ruling Kenya African National Union party (kanu) is Uhuru Kenyatta, 41, a businessman-turned-politician and son of Kenya's first President, Jomo Kenyatta. The young Kenyatta has never held a publicly elected office; he contested a seat in parliamentary elections five years ago and lost by 12,000 votes. But Moi brought him into parliament as a "nominated" M.P. anyway, and later made him a minister.

Critics fear that Moi intends to continue to rule through his protégé. At the least, the opposition says, Kenyatta is unlikely to pursue Moi and his allies for alleged corruption, just as Moi left the Kenyatta family alone after the death of Jomo. Kenyatta (who refused TIME's request for an interview) talks about the need for moral regeneration in Kenya but fudges the question of whether he would prosecute corrupt leaders. "I would like us to draw a line in the sand," he told a press conference recently. "Let's learn from the mistakes of the past and move together into the future."

The opposition, a newly formed alliance of longtime Moi opponents and disgruntled former Moi allies known as the National Rainbow Coalition, sniffs victory. The united front is proving popular with voters. A recent poll gave the coalition two-thirds support. But it too has strong connections to Moi's inner circle. Its presidential candidate, Mwai Kibaki, 71, who was injured in a car accident last week, was Moi's deputy until 1988. George Saitoti, who was Vice President until just a few months ago when Moi tapped Uhuru for the top job, is another prominent kanu name who now opposes his old boss. More former Moi confidants recently jumped ship to the Rainbow Coalition. "Those that allege we are carrying baggage are wrong," says Saitoti. "It is we who helped install multiparty democracy in this country. But now we've begun to see a very worrying regression, which we want to fight."

Whoever wins will face the same old problems. Kenya's economy has been battered by two decades of corruption and negligence. The coffee industry has withered due to mismanagement and falling prices. Foreign investment and donor money have all but dried up because of worries over graft. Tourism is sure to be hit by the recent terrorist bombing in Mombasa. One in seven people is infected with hiv/aids, while more than half the population of 31 million lives on less than a dollar a day. "It's almost overwhelming," says Chege Waitara, an analyst with the Institute of Economic Affairs, a Nairobi-based research group. "It calls to mind the caliber of leader we require: someone dedicated, someone inspired."

The opposition candidate, Kibaki, is hardly inspirational. But many Kenyans seem happy to support him and his colleagues just to get kanu out. Still, the opposition shouldn't underestimate the power of the incumbent. Moi steamrollered Kenyatta into position and has put Kenya's state machinery at the young man's disposal. Kenyans fear that Moi may not even stand down when the time comes. Workers are busy replacing the rusting wire fence around the presidential residence with a concrete wall. Perhaps the old man wants to watch over Kenyans for a while longer.

• SIMON ROBINSON/Nairobi
• The Kenyan President may step down — but not give up power