EACC says it recorded 26 cases of voter bribery on poll day

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has said that it encountered 26 cases of voter bribery on poll day.

Through a statement, the commission says that its monitoring teams encountered voter bribery incidences in several polling stations in Garissa, Meru, Busia, Wajir, Nyamira and Machakos counties.

“The polling exercise was largely peaceful, however, our officers came across isolated incidents of voter bribery and other electoral malpractices including procedural irregularities,” said EACC.

The commission notes that it is currently pursuing two cases of voter bribery, 7 of these cases have been handled by the police, 1 case has been referred to the Ministry of Interior and 16 other cases have been pursued but remain unsubstantiated on various accounts.

According to the statement, the commission also received complains from voters on poll day on procedural irregularities which slowed down the polling exercise.

“We received a number of complains from voters including late opening of polling stations, failure by IEBC officials to direct voters to the right streams, failure by IEBC officials at the polling stations to wear identification badges and slow re-direction of voters who were in the wrong queues.”

The commission notes that it has documented these incidents in the EACC observation report.