MPs' relatives win Kenyan polls

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The widow and a sister of the two ministers killed in a plane crash in June have won by-elections in Kenya's Rift Valley Province.

Beatrice Kones, widow of the late Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones won the Bomet contest, while Joyce Laboso won her sister's former seat in Sotik.

The by-elections were the first elections since an inquiry into last year's polls called for radical reform.

The by-elections passed off peacefully but turn-out was low.

The BBC's Wanyama Chebusiri in Sotik says the two constituencies are in a carnival mood and residents are celebrating the victories.

The two women won the seats on Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party tickets, dashing claims that the party's popularity in the region is waning.

The Rift Valley Province was one of ODM's strongholds in the last elections.

But the party has been facing a growing rebellion from some of the region's MPs over the government's plans to reclaim land irregularly allocated in the Mau Forest and the distribution of cabinet posts.

The MPs are demanding that both of the cabinet positions left vacant by the death of the two ministers should be given to leaders from the Rift Valley.

Some ODM MPs openly defied their party by campaigning for candidates with a relatively small party - the United Democratic Movement.

More than 1,500 people were killed and 600,000 displaced in political and ethnic violence after last December's elections, following ODM claims that the results had been rigged.

Some of the worst violence was in the Rift Valley, where members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu community were targeted.

A power-sharing arrangement was agreed to end the violence, with ODM leader Raila Odinga becoming prime minister.