Nairobi Team,
More than 22 million Kenyans have registered to vote in an election that seems to be a tight race between Deputy President William Ruto and Raila Odinga. The other Presidential contenders are David Mwaure and George Wajackoya.
To win the presidential race in the first round, a candidate needs more than half of all the votes cast nationwide and at least 25% of the votes cast in a minimum of 24 counties.
Additionally, voters will select county governors, county assembly members, 47 women’s representatives to the National Assembly, and MPs and senators to serve in the national parliament.
Voters around Kenya on Wednesday lined up at polling stations where they have been registered to cast their votes. Voting began today at 6.00 am.
Below are pictures on the general elections from different areas in Kenya:
Kenyans living in Uganda have crossed into the country to take part in the ongoing vote.
Busia County commissioner Ahmed Omar said officials are working closely with their Ugandan counterparts to facilitate the movement.
“If there are eligible Kenyan voters in Uganda, they can come and vote and then go back to Uganda. We have deployed enough security personnel along our border,” he said.
JUST 30 % OF KENYAN VOTERS CAST BALLOTS BY MIDDAY
The electoral commission announced that just 6,567,869 million Kenyans had turned up to vote by 12 pm on Tuesday.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission vice chairperson Juliana Cherera said polls were opened at 6 am in most places countrywide as well as in the diaspora.
Voting in the diaspora is happening in 12 nations among them Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Qatar, UAE and Germany. Voting is taking place from 6 am to 5 pm at their local time.
In a press briefing, Ms Cherera announced that voting for parliamentary seats in Kitui Rural and Rongai constituencies were postponed because wrong candidate pictures were printed on ballot papers.
Their election dates will be announced via a gazette notice, she said.
At the same time, IEBC has allowed the use of the manual voter register in Makueni County for 84 polling stations and Kakamega County for 154 polling stations.
