Transporter delays ODM primaries in Kakamega

ODM primaries in Kakamega County kicked off to a slow start on Saturday morning due to a delay in delivery of voting materials.

Kakamega County ODM elections board chairman, David Sasala, explained that the delayed was caused by a transporter hired to ferry ballot materials from Kakamega Social Hall to the constituencies.

The exercise, however, took off smoothly at half past eight in the morning.

Short lived fracas was reported at Muliro Gardens polling station when an aspirant tried to bribe queuing to cast their votes.

A tight contest is expected in the senatorial race with three aspirants eyeing the seat on the orange party ticket.

Seth Panyako, Kenneth Bukachi and Justus Ambutsi are optimistic of clinching the ODM ticket to unseat Senator Boni Khalwale who will be defending the seat on a Ford-Kenya ticket.

Parliamentary nominations will also be conducted in 9 out of 12 constituencies in the county as 3 aspirants; Vincent Mukhono (Ikolomani), Alfred Khasavuli (Malava) and Nabii Nabwera (Lugari) have been handed direct nominations.

Governor Wycliffe Oparanya also got the ticket unopposed to defend his seat.

In Narok county, confusion ensued at Ilmasharian polling centre – in the outskirts of Narok town, where 30 members missed their names on the party register.

Narok county elections board chairman Rev. Joseph Karia insisted that they would not allow members whose names are not on the register to vote.

“The law prohibits us from allowing people who are not on the register to vote,” said Karia.

Those prevented from voting expressed fear that they might also be barred from participating in the general election due to the same predicament.