6.5 Million Kenyans Voted By Midday Tuesday – IEBC

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug, 9 – 6,567,869 million voters out of a registered 22,120,458 had cast their ballot by midday Tuesday according to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The voters are spread across 290 constituencies and 46,229 polling centers nationwide.

Noticeably, the statistics includes Kenyans from the Diaspora.

Those in the diaspora are drawn from 12 countries among them, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, South Sudan United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Qatar, UAE and Germany. 

IEBC Commissioner Molu Boya said that the commission will issue the final number of those that would have voted by the end of the day.

Across various parts of the country however, voter apathy was witnessed as Kenyans appeared to steer clear of polling stations. 

Officials however say that some may be planning on casting their vote during the final hours.

Polling stations will be closed by 5 pm.

“Where there is a delay in the opening and interruptions of voting at a polling station, the presiding officer shall extend the hours of the polling by the amount of the time lost,” said IEBC vice Chairperson Juliana Cheerer.

Also amid delays in the voting process where concerns have been raised following the malfunctioning of kiems kits, IEBC has authorized the use of the manual register.

At the ward level, polling stations have been provided with six kiems kits meant to serve as backups in case of any eventuality.

“When someone goes to the polling station, first you are identified biometrically, if your biometrics can not allow your details to pop up then they will use your ID number, the alphanumeric, by doing that they will have to fill a form 32 to show that you have been validated and if you are not found they will check whether it is the kit or something else has happened.,” said Cherera.

Meanwhile, the poll body said that only 200 out of 46,229 kiems kits experienced technical issues as of midday Tuesday.

“What has been reported is the failure of 200 kiems kits out of the 46,229, it is not widespread. Technology do breaks down and when they do we have an alternative on how to address that which we already have,” said commissioner Justus Nyang’aya.

The commission authorized the use of the manual register in Makueni county, that is in Kibwezi West constituency for 84 polling stations and Kakamega county, specifically, Malaba, Matungu, Mumias West and Mumias East Constituencies for 154 polling stations.

At the presidential level, to avoid a runoff, a candidate needs more than 50 per cent of votes. Provisional results will start streaming in Tuesday evening however an official announcement will take days.