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Kenya: Kibra Poll – Voting, Hitches and Bribery Claims

Published

6 years ago

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Kibra residents in Nairobi County are voting in a high-stakes parliamentary by-election on Thursday seen as a do-or-die between Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto.

Polls opened at 6am and long lines could be seen in polling stations across the constituency’s five wards – Sarang’ombe, with the highest number of registered voters at 30,754, Woodley/Kenyatta Golf Course (28,066), Makina (25,695), Laini Saba (17,455) while Lindi has 16,688.

There are 24 candidates battling for the 118,658 votes.

The by-election follows the death of MP Ken Okoth after he succumbed to cancer in July.

Mr J.B Ongote, a voter at the Toi Primary poling station, in Woodley/Kenyatta Golf Course ward, says the voting process is smooth and everything is in order.

Further, he says that he believes that the candidate he voted for will win the by-election and bring the change that Kibra needs.

“IEBC has done a good job, the station was opened on time and the voting process has been peaceful so far,” said Mr Ongote.

HITCHES

However, it is not all smooth at Jamhuri Primary polling station in the same ward. At one of the streams, the biometric machine used to verify the voters’ identity is not working properly. WATCH VIDEO HERE

The frustrated voters, who have been on the queue since 6am, say that this is not the first time that they have experienced delays at the polling station. They claim the same hitches occured in previous elections in 2017.

By 8am, only five people had cast their ballots at the affected stream with 672 registered voters.

BRIBES

In Laini Saba, voters at the Mashimoni polling station claimed there were incidences of bribery with Sh200 notes being disbursed.