But professor Joshua Kivuva of the University of Nairobi said the charges have actually helped to unite Mr. Kenyatta’s base.

“Without the ICC, the Jubilee would not exist. Uhuru Kenyatta would not even be a factor in this. He was a nobody without the ICC,” said Kivuva.

Supporters from both parties acknowledge that tribalism dominates Kenyan politics.

Odinga, who is part of the Luo tribe, is relying on votes from his supporters in the western part of the country.

Tribal politics

Kenyatta depends on the Kikuyu tribal vote in central Kenya.

Professor Kivuva said the role of tribe, however, is largely misunderstood.

“Actually Kenya has never had tribal politics, that is the biggest misnomer that has been perpetrated all the time. Kenyans vote very much on ideological basis, it’s on that [where] ideology and tribe converge,” he said.

Other candidates have tried to change the political conversation this year.

Peter Kenneth ran on a campaign that rejected tribalism and tried to court Kenyans from across ethnic lines. While he has been popular on the campaign trail, he has ranked near the bottom in recent polls.

All parties say they want to avoid a repeat of the violence that killed more than 1,100 people following the last disputed election.

The vote on Monday is likely to be incredibly close, though, with the two leading politicians separated by only a couple of percentage points in recent polls. Candidates have already started trading accusations of vote rigging, raising tensions and the possibility that the results again could be disputed.