Kenya's top presidential challenger has brought in an American political strategist, tarred by a prostitution scandal, to help defeat President Mwai Kibaki in a December 27 poll, his campaign said on Wednesday. As opposition candidates kicked off their official campaigns, Raila Odinga, who has a narrow lead in opinion polls, said American pollster Dick Morris had joined his team.  "He is working as a consultant, but he is doing it pro bono. He is not charging Mr. Odinga," said Odinga spokeswoman Rose Lukalo. Morris rose to fame as an architect of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's successful 1996 re-election campaign, but resigned in the middle of it after a tabloid published a story of Morris' year-long affair with a $200-an-hour prostitute. He has since become a political consultant to U.S. and foreign candidates, an author and commentator on talk-shows.

"His presence here and subsequent involvement in the campaign will inject a degree of professionalism never before seen in Kenyan politics," Odinga told reporters on Tuesday. Morris said he had approached Odinga when he heard he was in the United States on a recent visit, and that he was "very likely to win this election". "I think the reason is he has a clear reputation for courage and for integrity and for change," Morris told reporters. "I am delighted to be here in Kenya and to help you get rid of the corrupt government." The government had no immediate comment on Morris, nor his immigration status in Kenya.

OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN

Odinga, who is the wealthy scion of his Luo tribe's most prominent family, paints himself as a champion of the poor and the alternative to a government he says failed to deliver its 2002 election pledge of eliminating corruption. Kibaki has urged Kenyans to look at his government's record of development and economic growth against what his opponents' did while they were in government -- which he says is little more than make unrealised promises. Both Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, who is a distant third in the polls, were in Kibaki's cabinet before the president fired them in 2005 after they fell out over a new constitution.

On Wednesday, Odinga presented nomination papers from his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party to the Electoral Commission of Kenya, as did Musyoka. Kibaki, who wants another five-year term, is due to present his papers on Thursday. In the latest Steadman poll, Odinga's lead narrowed to 45 percent, with Kibaki tallying 41 percent and Musyoka 15 percent. Though campaign season has been in full swing for months, Wednesday's formalities signal the official campaign period up to the December 27 polls -- dubbed the Home Stretch by Kenyan media.

Campaign ads have multiplied in recent days. On Wednesday leaflets equating Odinga's plan for federalism -- majimbo in Kiswahili -- with death popped up all over the capital Nairobi. Though all candidates favour bringing more power to the local level, polls show that most Kenyans reject majimbo as having the potential to instigate ethnic violence and resurrect the tribal segregation imposed under colonial rule.