US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed India as a model of democracy for the developing world as she campaigned in Africa for better governance.

Clinton was speaking to students in Kenya, where politics remain tense after a hotly disputed election triggered street violence until a power-sharing deal was reached in February 2008.

She told the students that India's billion plus people also had strong political differences.

"But they have figured out how to run an election where the results can be surprising and unpredicted but accepted," she said at the University of Nairobi.

"I said only half-jokingly after our problems with our 2000 election, and then our 2004 elections in some of our constituencies, that we should outsource our elections to India," she said.

Clinton visited India last month where she called for greater cooperation between the world's two largest democracies on a range of global issues.