Three independent monitoring groups have warned of corruption and bias by Kenyan civil servants in the run up to parliamentary and presidential elections.

The monitoring groups, which include religious leaders, said they were concerned at reports of voter cards being bought and of candidates bribing voters with handouts of money.

With two days to go before the elections, campaigning is muted. Our East Africa correspondent Cathy Jenkins reports from Nairobi:

Independent monitoring groups are preparing to deploy observers in more than 13,000 polling stations for Monday's election.

But at a news conference in Nairobi they voiced concern that corruption and bribery could mar the poll.

The group cited cases where candidates had bought up voters cards and others where sums of money had been paid out in bribes.

They said it was impossible to stress to people enough that voting was their right and they should not sell it.

Two days before Kenya's second multi-party elections, campaigning has been muted, with even the candidates making a late start.

Two of the leading opposition presidential candidates, Mwai Kibaki and Charity Ngilu, have been concentrating their campaigns in and around Nairobi.

The capital and the neighbouring central province are considered to be opposition strongholds.

Mr Kibaki, who leads the Democratic Party, is considered likely to emerge the winner in the central province.

He belongs to the Kikuyu tribe, which is centred on Nairobi and the central province.

Opponents of Mr Kibaki took a full page advertisement in a national newspaper on Sunday to try to discredit him.

The advertisement referred back to the 1980s and the early 1990s, when Mr Kibaki was a member of the ruling KANU party and served as vice-president.