With President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga close in opinion polls ahead of the December 27 vote, politics have turned ugly in recent weeks.

Violence has erupted regularly at rallies and several people have died in the chaos. Party primaries earlier this month descended into farce, with some losers even beating election officials and picking up guns to threaten opponents.

And on Tuesday, police were questioning an assistant minister, Raphael Wanjala, over a weapons haul -- including machetes, clubs, and bows and arrows -- found in a government car assigned to him, local media said.

"It is important that people can exercise their right to vote freely and that candidates are able to campaign in a peaceful, secure environment in which there is a level playing field," EU observer team head Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said.

He was speaking at a news conference in Nairobi to launch a 150-person European election observer team.

Traditionally viewed as an oasis of stability compared to many of its war-torn neighbours in the region, Kenya nevertheless has a history of violence at election times.

Kibaki's 2002 win over the party of former President Daniel arap Moi was not, however, as bad as previous elections, either for violence or rigging. "Kenya set a high standard for the region with its elections in 2002," Lambsdorff added.

"Now it is the responsibility of the leadership in all political parties and the Electoral Commission of Kenya to maintain this standard, and ideally raise it higher."

ODINGA JUST AHEAD IN POLLS

The closeness of the race in east Africa's largest economy has, analysts say, heightened the potential for trouble.

In the most recent of four polls, Odinga, 62, a charismatic ex-political prisoner and one-time minister for Kibaki, has come out on top overall, with a range of 41.5 to 45.2 percent.

Kibaki, 76, scored a range of 36.1 to 43.3 percent.

Analysts say it is Kenyan politicians themselves, motivated by greed for power and tribal instincts, who are knowingly fomenting instability by hiring gangs.

"It is almost an accepted culture in Kenya that politicians, no matter the vileness of their behaviour, avoid prosecution for breaking the law," wrote Abdulahi Ahmednassir, a former chairman of the Law Society of Kenya, in a newspaper column.

With Kenya's minority Muslim population leaning towards the opposition, an Islamic group on Tuesday released details of a memorandum they said they signed with Odinga in August.

Angry at arrests of Muslims on counter-terrorism grounds, the umbrella National Muslim Leaders Forum said in a statement it agreed to back Odinga in exchange for development in Muslim regions and elimination of arrests by profiling.

"President Mwai Kibaki's government has meted out calculated, deliberate, unprecedented discrimination, intimidation and harassment of sections of Kenyans, including Muslims," it said.

The government denies that, saying it has only been protecting the security of all Kenyans.