Voting started at 6am in most polling stations where voters started trooping in as early as 3am.
The process has, according to Kenya Press turned out to be ‘smooth’ in most parts save for a few counties where voting started late due to hitches ranging from poor weather conditions that caused flooding to polling stations having the wrong batch of ballot papers.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) spokesman Andrew Limo told Kenya media on Tuesday that extra support staff had been brought into service to resolve minor technical issues and confirmed that anyone who was in line, or in an area affected by delays at the 40883 polling stations was still able to cast their ballot.
In the presidential race, there is fierce competition between the incumbent Mr. Kenyatta (Jubilee Party), and the opposition, Mr. Odinga (Orange Democratic Movement).
There are many other candidates running and unless one person can secure more than 50% of the votes there will have to be another round of voting, The Standard Media, Kenya reports.
Who voted from where?
Uhuru voted at Gatundu, in Kiambu County of Kenya shortly after 11.30am.
“I feel positive because we ran a positive campaign,” the incumbent President told reporters.
“Peace. Peace. Peace. I say peace because Kenya was here before and it will be here after today,” The 55-year-old said.
“To my competitors, as I have always said, in the event that they lose, let us accept the will of the people. I am willing, myself, to accept the will of the people,” Uhuru emphasized.
He was accompanied by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and two of their three children.
If he loses, he’ll make history as the only incumbent president not to win re-election, CNN reports.
Mr Raila cast his vote in the Nairobi slum of Kibera at 11.50am accompanied by his wife Ida.
“We are confident of victory, continue mobilising people to come out and vote, this victory is ours,” he told his supporters as he left the polling station.
What is making headlines?
For the very first time, this country’s inmates at Kisumu prison were able to vote. They are only permitted to vote for presidential candidates. Some voters praised authorities for what they described as a better-run election than the one in 2013.
According to local press, a 33-year-old woman in West Pokot County lost her unborn baby after braving long queues to cast her ballot at Kuwit Polling Centre.
Standard Media, Kenya says this was after voters ignored her pleas for help after she began experiencing labour pains while on the queue.
At Konyau Mixed Secondary School of Kapchok Ward in the same county, another woman who identified herself as Mama Cheyech named her baby Chepkura, meaning elections. The woman gave birth after queuing for more than three hours.
Elsewhere, it was a scene to behold at Dandora Primary School polling station when a man with a terminal diseases turned up to the station to cast his vote with an oxygen cylinder.
Daily Nation said, John Nyakundi, 53, suffered lung disease two years ago and uses oxygen therapy in his house, to ease the burden of hospital bills. He said he must vote to elect a leader who will ensure affordable health services for people like him.
Some of the votes have already come in
By the time of publishing this report at 9:45 pm, President Kenyatta was leading with 1,665,740 votes (55.39%) against his closest challenger Raila Odinga’s 1,319,200 votes (43.87%).
So far, 9,405 out of 40,883 polling stations have transmitted their results to the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya.
Follow the poll results here
editor@ugchristiannews.com
